Chapter 15

“Not at all. When all of the Ruby Eyes are exterminated and the SFD is disbanded, Utsugi is going to have the memories of himself from every other human being removed by Chief Himi… That was his condition for joining us,” Yumiko argued. With a faint smile, she continued. “So we will one day forget the pasta that we ate today. It won’t remain in anyone’s memory… Don’t you think that is sad?” Riri apparently hadn’t been told of Minoru’s condition for joining. Her eyes opened wide and stared at Minoru for a while, but finally with a tolerant smile well beyond her years, she nodded. “…I see. Mikkun, do you have any objections to being called ‘Isolator’?” “No.” Minoru quickly shook his head. “I think it’s a good name. Isolator, huh…? I like it.” “Well, then, I’ll make a record of your new code name. But still, if I knew that I was going to forget the flavor of this pasta, I wish I could have savored it more,” Riri said. Minoru didn’t have any response to give her, but after a short pause Yumiko said, “I’m sure he’ll make it again for us.” 3 After Ayato Suka locked the door of his apartment behind him, he took a deep breath. It was sweet. The thick oxygen in the air made its way through his lungs to his blood vessels and spread all throughout his body, cleaning away the pollution of the outside world. Suka had filled every room of his two-bedroom apartment with potted plants, both large and small. But none of them were the kind of plants that withered after flowering for a short time, the kind of plants cultivated just to serve human ego. They were all reliable plants thick with glossy leaves of deep green, vigorously photosynthesizing. Taking several deep breaths before he was content, Suka finally removed his leather shoes. As he entered the living room, overflowing with green, he immediately opened the glass door opening to the south veranda, where there were so many green potted plants there was no place to step. In order to make the best of the shorter daylight hours in the winter, Suka moved plants from inside his apartment to the veranda every morning on a rotation schedule. However, no matter how much the Tokyo metropolis was becoming a subtropical climate, if he didn’t move the plants inside as soon as the sun set, they were in danger of being damaged by the frost. It was a lot of work to move the dozens of potted plants to and from the veranda every morning and evening, but that didn’t bother Suka. After all, it was for the sake of the plants he had worked so hard on, and because of the red eye he hosted inside of his body, both his strength and stamina had risen considerably. “It was cold out there, wasn’t it? Don’t worry, I’ll warm you right up,” Suka whispered to a Strelitzia plant with thick extended leaves, as he rolled up his sleeves and set about his work. By the time Suka had moved the fifth plant from the veranda to its spot inside by the wall, he was interrupted as a loud electric sound rang over the intercom. “…” He paused, frowning. He looked at the LCD monitor on the wall, but there was no video. He wasn’t being called from the front of the building, but from the bell in front of his door. It’s probably a solicitor who slipped in through the auto-locked front area as another resident was passing through, he thought and decided to ignore the bell. But just as he was about to return to his work, there was a loud knock on the door accompanied by a loud and irritated voice. “Mr. Suka, it’s Ooshima from next door! I know you’re home!” the voice called. Suka clicked his tongue. It was the housewife who lived one room to his right, and he knew why she was here. He tried ignoring her, but she wouldn’t stop knocking on the door. With a sigh, Suka finally stopped his work and walked toward the door. “Hey, I know you’re there! I just heard you out on the veranda!” the woman yelled. To at least convey some of his irritation, he roughly and loudly flipped the lock to the door. Opening the door as little as possible, so that she wouldn’t see into his apartment, Suka stepped out into the hallway and turned to face Mrs. Ooshima. The round middle-age woman wearing glasses with colored lenses shook her drooping cheeks with anger as she yelled, “Mr. Suka, I’ve already told you several times before not to put your plants out on the veranda, haven’t I? But today, when I looked around the barrier between our apartments…it looks like a jungle out there! Lately these disgusting bugs have been coming over to our veranda, and I bet they’re coming from your side! Just where is your common sense?!” …You peeked around the barrier? Suka thought, trying to control the anger lurking in his throat before making the same argument he made three days ago. “As I am aware, according to the rules laid down by the management, tenants are allowed to put decorative plants out on their verandas.” “That doesn’t mean that you can go and make your veranda a forest!!” Mrs. Ooshima screeched. “When people see that forest from the outside, it’s an embarassment to the entire apartment complex! How are you going to take responsibility if the property value falls?! Plus, even if it’s allowed to put plants on the veranda, there’s nothing saying it’s okay to raise bugs!!” Suka’s irritation spread from his chest to his right shoulder and down to his right hand. In his clenched fist, that object started to give off a gentle heat. I’ll burn you to ash, you old hag, thought Suka, fireworks going off deep inside his mind. But with a deep breath, he was somehow able to calm himself down. “But Mrs. Ooshima. From what I can tell looking at your veranda from outside, you seem to have several potted plants as well,” Suka said in a low voice, objecting once more. In reality, on the Ooshimas’ veranda there were several large potted plants, even if it wasn’t to the extent Suka maintained. However, many of the plants she was keeping outside, such as anthurium and areca palms, had a low tolerance to cold and most of their leaves had fallen away. It was a pitiful reflection of her, but more than that, he felt sorry for the plants. “…By the way, I wanted to tell you that the anthuriums you have can’t survive outside in the winter like this, so until it gets warmer, I think you should move them inside…,” Suka started. “You’ve been peeking into my veranda?! H-how obscene!!” Mrs. Ooshima suddenly shrieked, her thick lips and cheeks shivering. “We have a young daughter living at home with us! I can’t believe you were peeking! The police! I need to call the police!” Wait a minute, Suka thought. Aren’t you the one who just said something about the way my veranda looks lowering property values? Even before that, didn’t you say that you were peeking around the barrier to look at my veranda? His shock only lasted a moment before his anger came back twofold, like a spasm running through his back. I want to burn her, he thought. I want to burn this lowly, ignorant, sad excuse for a living thing until there’s nothing of her left but a small black stain. But even without going that far, all I would have to do is grasp the air around her and deprive her of oxygen until she fainted. After all, right now her ugly dilated nose and mouth are sucking in air like a vacuum cleaner, he thought. But no, now wasn’t the time. He couldn’t yet use his power within the scope of his home, workplace, or his route to work. Suka was warned that there were those who hunted red Third Eye hosts, hosts with black Third Eyes… That was also when he learned that this thing was called a Third Eye. The black hunters could detect when reds used their powers from a great distance away and would come to attack them. In the beginning, back when he didn’t know anything about the Third Eyes, when Suka believed that he was the only one endowed with this power, he was attacked once by the black hunters. He was barely able to get away by depriving one of their members of oxygen, but before that he had been heavily wounded. Of course, he intended to take revenge, especially on the one girl who drove a knife deep into his stomach. If nothing else, he would make sure she burned. It was for that sake that he trained in the mountains to strengthen his power. He would look for an opportunity, plan and set a meticulous trap, and beautifully oxidize her. So now was not the time for him to be consumed by petty rage. Breathing in air deep to the depths of his lungs, Suka visualized the oxygen purifying his blood and faced the hysterical woman with a level tone. “If you feel you must call the police, then do as you will. As for plants on my veranda, let us bring it up at the next management meeting. Good night.” Shutting the middle-age woman’s screeching voice out of his mind, he returned to his apartment and shut the door. He turned the lock and returned to his living room. Even while he continued about his work moving his plants, the spark of anger in his chest would not completely go out. But that is fine for now, Suka thought. Anger magnifies strength. In order for me to take my revenge on the black hunters, I need to grasp an even wider area of oxygen. It’s not enough that I can only just barely burn a single person away, he thought. I need to be able to call forth the great fires of Sodom that burned those very skies and burn them all in a single sweep like insects that fly into a flame. Having finished carrying all the potted plants in from the veranda, he shut the glass door and stood in the middle of his green-filled living room with his arms spread wide. He took in with his entire body the great volumes of oxygen ejected from the plants that had bathed in sunlight all day. “Ohh…,” he sighed in ecstasy, curling the fingers of his right hand. The crimson eye in the middle of his palm pulsed happily. 4 After they had finished eating, Riri quickly returned to the experiment area and Yumiko said that she would clean up and took the dishes into the kitchen. Minoru, left at the dining table, stared blankly out the window at the nightly scene of east Shinjuku. Once he heard a loud clanging sound from the kitchen, but he carefully decided to pretend he didn’t hear anything. A few minutes later, Yumiko returned with two steaming mugs. “Here you go,” she said. “Ah, thank you,” Minoru replied, taking his cup with a nod. At first glance, it appeared to be coffee, but as he brought the cup closer to check how it smelled, Yumiko glared at him from across the table. “You don’t have to be that rude. Even I can prepare coffee, you know? Instant coffee at least,” she said, taking out a couple of packs of sweeteners from her skirt pocket and setting them on the table. “Here, use whichever you like.” “All right…,” said Minoru, taking a pack of gum syrup, wondering if it was really all right to put one of these in hot coffee, but as Yumiko seemed to do so with no problem, Minoru followed suit. I suppose gum syrup’s sweetening effect doesn’t change, no matter what you put it in, he thought. After they both took a sip, Yumiko spoke. “I’m sorry about earlier.” “…What do you mean?” he asked. “For deciding your code name for you. It’s still not too late if you want to change it now…,” said Yumiko, acting unusually meek, but Minoru shook his head. “No, it’s fine. I wasn’t lying when I said I liked it. I think the name Isolator is really fitting,” he said. It seemed that Yumiko based the name Isolator on Minoru’s wish to be in “a world where no one knew him,” but whenever Minoru activated his defensive shell, he truly was put in complete isolation. Cut off from the rest of the world, the only thing that could reach him from the outside was light. He couldn’t think of any other word more fitting to describe that state than isolation. “I mean, it actually sounds kind of cool. I’m not sure I can live up to the name,” he added. Minoru didn’t think he had said anything out of the ordinary, but for some reason, Yumiko looked upset. “…Well, if you don’t have a problem with it, I don’t mind,” she said before taking a large sip of coffee and almost spitting it out with a gasp because it was too hot. Just what does she want from me? Minoru thought to himself. Women had all been an utter mystery to Minoru from as long as he could remember, but especially with Yumiko, he had no idea where her mood would turn. It was like riding on a roller coaster in pitch darkness. This was fitting, perhaps, for someone named Accelerator. But as he was pondering this, his thoughts were interrupted by Yumiko. “Umm… Utsugi? I was just wondering, but…,” she said. “Wh-what?” Minoru replied. “Let’s assume there was a girl out there who was madly in love with you,” she continued. “Wait, what?!” Minoru reflexively jerked back, but Yumiko waved her hand in front of her face with a serious look to calm him down. “I’m not talking about me. This is a ‘what if’ scenario. Anyway. Assuming there was a girl like that, would you want to erase all of her memories of you as well?” Yumiko asked. “I would,” Minoru quickly replied, and this time it was Yumiko who jerked back about five centimeters. “…Why? Wouldn’t it make you happy if there was a girl like that?” she asked. “Whether I would be happy or not doesn’t make a difference… There are no emotions that last forever,” Minoru replied, looking down at the table. “Eventually there would be something to make that girl hate me; she might even grow to despise me so much she would want to kill me. That always remains a possibility, so it’s better to not have a relationship at all.” For a while both were silent. Minoru didn’t look up and kept staring down at the table. He didn’t want to be even having this conversation. As soon as he was alone again, thinking back to this moment, he was sure that he would regret every word he said. Finally, Yumiko broke the silence with a stern voice. “Hmph. I see. In other words you just don’t want to be hated. You want everyone to like you,” she said. “…That’s not what I said. I only want them to be apathetic to me. That’s all,” Minoru replied, shaking his head without looking up, but Yumiko didn’t stop there. “If you’re hated, all you have to do is ignore it. No matter who you are, there’s going to be at least one person out there who hates you, and I’m no different,” she said. Minoru slowly lifted his gaze and looked at Yumiko across the table. She had straight, flowing glossy hair. It didn’t seem as if she was wearing any makeup, with her skin as white as magnolias. Her eyelashes were thick and her eyes cool and filled with light. Taking his eyes again off of the girl who ten out of ten would call beautiful, Minoru muttered, “Are you sure you know what it’s really like to be hated? Do you really think you know?” But whatever Yumiko’s answer was, it did not reach Minoru’s ears. Before her pink lips could move to form that answer, the elevator doors at the north end of the room groaned as they reluctantly opened. The young man wearing a cap who leaped out of the elevator was someone Minoru was familiar with. He was one of the Jet Eyes, DD, code name “Searcher,” and as soon as he entered the room, he called out in a loud voice. “E-everyone! It’s him! He’s returned! The one responsible for the murder in Ikebukuro is Igniter!” With a loud thud, Yumiko slammed her mug on the table. Once again, everyone gathered in one place. At the west end of the room, there was a space where folding chairs set in front of a large eighty- or so inch monitor that looked like it was used for meetings. Riri, who stepped in front of Yumiko, DD, and Minoru after they had taken their seats, lightly tapped on the monitor with a stick pointer. The 8K monitor flicked on and displayed a single photograph. The photograph, captioned by the title “Identified Ruby Eye Host No. 19: Igniter,” was very blurry and taken from diagonally behind the subject. All that one could tell from the photograph was that it was a thin man in a suit. As Riri turned around, she had a stern look on her young face. “…It appears that, unfortunately, Igniter is alive and well,” she said. “I expected as much,” replied Yumiko in a low voice. “A Ruby Eye isn’t so weak as to die from being stabbed in the stomach with a knife. Next time, I won’t miss his heart, I assure you.” When Minoru turned to glance at Yumiko, her face was more tense than he had ever seen it before, and it wasn’t just Yumiko. DD, who was sitting next to him, also looked nervous. From Minoru’s perspective, Igniter was the second Ruby Eye he’d heard of after Biter. From his code name, it seemed that his power had something to do with fire, but was he really that dangerous of an opponent? Riri, who seemed to read his mind, said, “First of all, for Mikkun’s sake, let’s go over what we already know,” and turned back around to control the monitor with her pointer. “Mikkun, huh?” said DD to Minoru’s left. When his eyes met Minoru’s, he made a faint, sympathetic smile. “Well, it’s still more of a proper nickname than ‘DD.’ I mean Oli-V even calls me ‘D&D,’” DD continued. Minoru found himself smiling and asked, “Professor decided your nickname as well, right? What is it based on?” Before DD could answer, Yumiko, who was sitting farther away, replied, “It’s just an acronym of his real name, Denjirou Daimon.” Denjirou Daimon, huh? thought Minoru. Yumiko, who had stolen DD’s answer away from him, ignored his frown and asked, “Where is Oli-V anyway?” “He’s scouting out Ikebukuro, just in case,” DD replied. “Is there any chance that Igniter will return to the scene of the crime?” Yumiko asked. “Well, he is like an arsonist in a way, but I can’t say for sure…,” DD replied. “You there, stop your chitchatting,” scolded Riri, like a teacher, as she turned back around. Yumiko, DD, and Minoru all straightened their posture. On the monitor a number of new photographs were displayed. Their resolution was low, as if they had been taken from security camera footage, and all showed nothing but something burning on the street at night. “Like his code name suggests, Igniter manipulates flame. Do you remember seeing a number of incidents in the news in October about people whose faces were severely burned when their cigarettes suddenly burst into flame?” asked Riri. Minoru nodded in an ambiguous way. “…I have a feeling I read something about it in the paper.” “All of those incidents were the work of Igniter. In the beginning, we hypothesized that his power was to heat objects by amplifying the vibrations in the atoms of those objects. His code name is also based on that hypothesis, but we were wrong. He is technically not an ‘igniter,’ but a ‘combustion catalyzer.’” “A ‘combustion catalyzer’? Just what does his power manipulate?” Minoru asked. “It’s oxygen,” answered Riri gravely. “Igniter has the power to manipulate oxygen molecules in the air and concentrate them at a single point. Our misunderstanding of the situation led to us having to pay a terrible price.” “A terrible price…,” repeated Minoru. “We’ll talk about that later…once you’ve gone to meet her. DD, can you show us that picture taken today at the scene of the crime?” DD, the Searcher, nodded, taking a smartphone out of his tactical jacket. Riri took the data he sent and displayed it on the monitor. Seeing the first photograph, Minoru gasped. DD must have taken the photo with a long telescopic lens. In comparison to the previous pictures, this photograph was very clear. It seemed to have been taken from a high place, looking down at a brick walkway. One area of the bricks was whitened as if they had been bleached by the sun, and in the very center of that area was a pitch-black stain. The stain was distinctly in the form of a person, and it was clear what had happened. Here a person had been engulfed in flame. “He’s becoming a lot more powerful, isn’t he?” remarked Yumiko. DD nodded before giving his explanation. “Today, at around three thirty in the afternoon, in the street of a shopping district near the west exit of Ikebukuro Station, a twenty-five-year-old businessman suddenly was covered in flame and burned to death. At the same time, I sensed by smell that a Ruby Eye’s powers were being activated and quickly went to the scene with Oli-V, but by the time we arrived, everything was over.” At the words “around three thirty,” Minoru’s body tensed. Around that time, Minoru was with Yumiko in that taxi on the highway, and Ikebukuro Station wasn’t very far from the route that they took to get here. In a place that Minoru might have been able to see out that taxi window, a Ruby Eye had been making a kill. Seeing Minoru’s shock, Riri said, “Mikkun, you shouldn’t be so hard on yourself. Although it depends on a number of factors, Jet Eyes who don’t have a power like DD’s usually can’t smell a Ruby Eye’s power more than one hundred meters away.” “…Okay…” Minoru nodded, and DD continued his explanation. “According to the testimony of witnesses gathered by the Ikebukuro police, the source of the flame was, like before, a lighter, but this time the flame didn’t dissipate until the victim’s body had completely carbonized. Additionally, people up to twenty meters away felt a wind rushing to the source of the flame. There were nine people taken to the hospital who had fainted after suffering from oxygen deprivation.” “Yes, that itself is the most dangerous element of Igniter’s power,” said Riri gravely, writing on the monitor with her pointer. Over the black stain, it said, “Combustion Catalyzation = Oxygen Deprivation.” Despite everything else, her handwriting was a bit childish. “Due to his ability to manipulate the oxygen in the atmosphere at will, Igniter has two forms of attack. One is to concentrate oxygen around a source of flame, to explosively catalyze combustion. The other is to, for a limited time, deprive a certain area of oxygen,” explained Riri, turning around to look at Yumiko, DD, and Minoru in turn. “Of the two, the most dangerous is the oxygen deprivation attack. That’s because while the combustion attack is flashy, it requires a very important initial condition. Mikkun, can you tell me what that is?” Riri asked. Suddenly asked a question, Minoru, feeling as if he was in the middle of an afternoon class, raised his hand to answer. “Y-yes. Is it that a spark, or initial flame, is required?” “Precisely! Igniter’s power can concentrate oxygen around a certain point, but he cannot start the fire. Therefore, either he must use an existing flame, such as a lit cigarette, a burning stick of incense, or a gas stove, or he must supply the flame himself with a lighter or something. For Third Eye hosts such as yourselves, who have very fast reaction times, it is not that difficult to avoid a combustion attack. However, an oxygen deprivation attack is a different matter. Even if you want to avoid it, it’s not something that you can see,” Riri explained. Riri then spread her arms wide, as if she were following a radio exercise routine, and took a deep breath. “When you are fighting, your bodies, stimulated by their Third Eyes, exhaust a large amount of oxygen. Your breathing becomes faster and deeper. If you take a full breath in an oxygen-deprived environment, it is even possible that you will immediately faint on the spot,” Riri said gravely, as if she were describing something that had already happened before. But after immediately wiping that expression from her face, she stuck her right hand in her lab coat pocket, digging around for something. “So the next time you face Igniter in combat, I will have you use these,” Riri said, showing them small gas cylinders about fifteen centimeters in length. Attached to the cylinders were clear hoses and a small mouthpiece. “These are specially modified forms of the small compressed gas cylinders that the Japan Self-Defence Forces’s marine units use. It is possible to breathe using just these cylinders for a maximum of five minutes. I have modified them so that you can equip them under your clothes and extend the hose from the cylinder up to your necks. The cylinders are filled with enriched air, containing a high concentration of oxygen,” explained Riri. Just then, DD raised his hand. “So if we have those cylinders, we don’t have to worry about the breathing problem. That’s our Professor! But rather than those small cylinders, wouldn’t it be better for us to use full-size scuba tanks? For people like us, the weight would mean nothing.” “That brings us to another problem. Can you guess why I made these cylinders small and had them equipped with thin, clear hoses?” Riri asked. There was silence. For at least about five seconds until Minoru slowly raised his hand. “Oh, go right ahead Mikkun,” said Riri. “Umm…well,” said Minoru in a small voice, shrinking away. “Igniter is able to manipulate oxygen, right? Therefore, if he realized that we had cylinders of compressed oxygen, wouldn’t he also be able to manipulate the oxygen in those containers?” “Correct!” shouted Riri. DD and Yumiko clapped in admiration. Riri smiled, and with her slippers flip-flipping, she ran over and took something out of her left coat pocket. Minoru reflexively extended his hand to Riri’s outstretched fist, and she dropped a piece of nostalgic-looking strawberry milk candy into his palm. “That was some nice insight. Good job,” she said with a smile. Riri then ran back to the monitor, and when she had turned around, she looked again like a stern teacher. “That is precisely the case. The gas cylinders are pressurized to two hundred fifty atmospheres. Just think about what the enemy could do with that. He could send it flying in an instant at best or make it explode at worst. You all wouldn’t get by with just a scratch. Therefore, you need to hide the small cylinder under your clothes and stealthily breathe from the tube at your neck. If the cylinders are discovered, you will have to discard them immediately. If it comes to that… Well, you’ll have to manage on fighting spirit.” “It won’t be a problem,” Yumiko said in a low, tense voice. “As long as I can get close to him once, I’ll make sure to finish him.” Minoru felt that the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. Wasn’t the SFD’s stated goal in dealing with Ruby Eyes to capture them and surgically remove their Third Eye? It sounded as if Yumiko was declaring that she would kill him, regardless of the circumstances. Riri, sensing Minoru’s confusion, sighed before continuing. “We’ll discuss the tactical details of the operation after Oli-V returns. For the time being, having confirmed that Igniter has returned to the city and that his power has increased by a large margin, I will bring this meeting to a close. I’m sorry, Yukko, but could you take Mikkun to see her?” “…” The black-haired Accelerator bit her lip and looked down. After a short pause, she stood up and turned to Minoru. “All right. Minoru, come with me.” Following Yumiko out of the elevator, Minoru looked at his surroundings. Unlike the fifth floor, which had all of the interior walls taken out to make one large room, the fourth floor, one floor below it, was just like a regular apartment floor, with nothing particularly strange about it. A concrete-lined hall connecting the apartments extended from left to right, and there were two doors on either side. Chasing after Yumiko, who had started down the hall making quiet sounds with the heels of her sneakers, he finally arrived at the eastern-most door with her. While waiting for the door to be unlocked, Minoru looked at the nameplate. Underneath the room number, 404, was a very properly written set of names, AZU–IKOMA. Azu was Yumiko’s surname, so perhaps that meant that she lived here with someone named Ikoma. Ignoring Minoru’s questioning gaze with her back to him, Yumiko turned the doorknob. From the other side of the opened door came a sweet scent, which immediately gave away that this was where a woman or women lived. When Minoru occasionally went to clean Norie’s room, it had this same kind of smell. Minoru, unable to bear the silence any longer, asked softly, “Is this your room?” “Yes,” Yumiko answered briefly without turning around before she entered the room. With no other choice, Minoru quietly entered the room after muttering, “Sorry to intrude.” Again, unlike the fifth floor, this room was relatively normal. From the step up into the apartment, the hallway stretched forward, and to the left and right were two sliding doors and one swinging door. At the end of the hall was a glass door that appeared to lead into the living room. The layout appeared to be a standard arrangement of a two-bedroom apartment with living room, kitchen, and dining room. After removing her shoes at the door and stepping up into the hallway, Yumiko finally turned around and glared at Minoru. “If you enter the far door on the right, I’ll throw you off the veranda.…You can use those slippers over there.” “Th-thanks…,” Minoru replied. “Follow me,” continued Yumiko. Yumiko, who turned back around, walked straight to the glass door at the end of the hall, turned the knob, and pushed it open. From the darkness on the other side of the door, which clicked open, the sweet smell grew stronger. It wasn’t an artificial smell, but a refreshing scent of real flowers. Along with it, he thought faintly, was also the sense that there was a person there as well. Naturally softening his footsteps as he entered the living room, he noticed that while the lights were off, the apartment was not cold—perhaps the thermostat had been left up. Because of the Third Eye in his chest, Minoru’s eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and the faint light of the city coming through the window was enough for him to see around the room. In the twelve tatami mat–size living-dining area, there was a sofa and TV, but no other large furniture. Instead, there was a large bed in the center of the room. Furthermore, it appeared to be a hospital bed with functions to raise and lower it. Around the bed were several flowers. There were lilies and heather and jasmine, as well as other flowers that Minoru did not know the names of, and they all spread out their pure white flower petals, shining faintly in the darkness. Urged on by Yumiko, Minoru moved to the side of the bed. Sleeping there was a girl who looked to be the same age as him. Her brown hair was cut short like a boy’s, but the reason Minoru was sure she was a girl was that her figure was overwhelmingly delicate. Her skin, as white as the flowers surrounding her, looked as if it would melt away in sunlight. Her long eyelashes were closed and unmoving, but from her slightly opened lips, a person could hear her faintly breathing. It took a few seconds for Minoru to realize for sure that she wasn’t simply asleep. From under the bed ran a clear tube and black cord connected to a machine on the other side of the bed. A monitor partially hidden by the flowers showed an unusually low heart rate and body temperature. This girl was not sleeping, but in a coma. After slowly breathing in the air scented by the flowers, Minoru turned to Yumiko. “Is this…Ms. Ikoma?” he asked. “Yes. This is Sanae Ikoma. Until last month, we worked together as a team. Her code name is ‘Shooter,’” Yumiko answered. Minoru blinked twice at the fact that the name didn’t seem to match the faint presence of the girl in front of him. Yumiko, without lifting her gaze from the girl in front of her, continued. “She was an archer. As long as it was a target that she could see, she had the power to hit her target every time, even if she was shooting from ten kilometers away. Sanae and I worked together in a perfect team of a forward and backup. In the month after the SFD was formed, we captured seven Ruby Eyes. With my stun baton and Sanae’s tranquilizing arrows, there was not a single Ruby Eye who could escape us. Until that one man, Igniter, showed up…,” Yumiko explained, her last sentence trailing off into a subdued sigh, and then sat down on a corner of the bed. Yumiko twisted around and brushed her left hand through Sanae’s short hair, and then continued her explanation in a whisper. “…We, who firmly believed that Igniter’s power was to heat a target, thought that we would be safe as long as he didn’t see us. So we planned to chase him in a car that had a heat-resistant ceramic coating and have Sanae shoot at him from inside the car. However, that man’s true power was to concentrate oxygen in a single spot. Even though we were facing an opponent like that, we had taken the worst strategy by shutting ourselves in a closed room.” As if she was remembering what happened at the time, Yumiko suddenly took a deep breath. “…Igniter took away all of the oxygen in the car, and DD who was driving, myself in the passenger’s seat, and Sanae in the backseat all breathed in a lungful of oxygen-deprived air. I was somehow able to open the door, grab DD, and escape with my accelerator power, but my consciousness was fading, and with the last ounce of power, I leaped once more and stabbed Igniter with a knife and immediately lost consciousness. By the time I came to, Igniter had disappeared, leaving only a bloodstain. While I and DD were able to get away with just fainting for a few minutes, Sanae, who was left in the car, suffered irreversible brain damage.” Minoru realized that at some point he had held his breath and stopped breathing. Taking in a deep breath, he tried to imagine what it would be like to breathe in oxygen-deprived air, but it was beyond him. On the other hand, Yumiko had leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Sanae’s sleeping head. “Sanae actually shouldn’t be able to breathe on her own anymore. From her cerebellum to her brain stem, everything has irreversibly stopped functioning. However, as you can see, it only looks like she’s just sleeping.…Do you understand why?” Yumiko asked. “…No,” Minoru replied. “It’s because of the Third Eye,” Yumiko answered. “The Third Eye in Sanae’s right shoulder has taken over her central nervous system and is making her continue to breathe. You saw what happened four days ago, right, Utsugi? Biter’s brain was blown away, but he still kept thrashing about.” “She’s gone…berserk?” Minoru asked in a raspy voice. Yumiko nodded slightly. “Yes, right now, Sanae is quietly going berserk. Even though her real consciousness no longer exists, her Third Eye is not letting her die. It’s awful…isn’t it? Chief Himi and Professor Isa both say that we should surgically remove her Third Eye. Remove it and let her die a proper death, and then return her to her family. But… But I…” Yumiko trailed off, her words containing a pain Minoru had yet to hear from her that rang through the space of the room buried in flowers. “I don’t want to forget her,” Yumiko continued. “I don’t want to make Sanae part of the past. I want to make more day-to-day memories with her…even if it’s just memories of me talking to her as she is now, unable to wake up.” Minoru realized that Yumiko’s words described the exact opposite of what Minoru’s wish was. Was that why? Was that why Yumiko was so against Minoru’s wish of wanting everyone to forget about him? However, he wasn’t able to put his conjecture or anything else into words. He was overwhelmed by the situation, overwhelmed by the cruel reality that occurs because of Ruby Eyes and Jet Eyes fighting each other. That a small, kind-looking girl like this could lose her life like this, in just a single battle… “…Why?” Minoru finally asked, even though it was way past the time to ask. “Why didn’t you or Sanae choose to have your Third Eyes removed and forget everything?” “If I had known this would have happened, I might have done that,” Yumiko replied. Yumiko’s answer itself was not combative, but her eyes as they gazed down in the darkness looked as if they had cold flames within them. “But I will not run away anymore. For Sanae’s sake, I cannot run away anymore. Until I finish with Igniter, until I finish disposing of every single one of the Ruby Eyes,” she said. Dispose of. In other words, have their Third Eyes surgically removed or kill the host. Yumiko’s determination was admirable, but at the same time, Minoru couldn’t help but think that something about it was wrong. It was true that those who host a red Third Eye are dangerous. Even though they look no different from everybody else, their psyche is filled with the desire to kill others, and they have been gifted with special powers. The only ones who can sense their presence are other Third Eye hosts, so it makes sense that it is necessary to have an organization such as the SFD with which to oppose them. However, there was no reason for Yumiko or Sanae, both of whom must have been normal girls before they became Jet Eyes, to fight them directly. There must be other options. For example, if Yumiko and company were to assist in finding and tracking the Ruby Eyes, the police or the Japan Self-Defense Forces should be able to do the rest. Ruby Eyes weren’t immortal. If something like a tranquilizer dart would work, then that is all the more reason to not get directly involved. Was it really necessary for Yumiko and company to put their lives in danger to fight? However, Minoru wasn’t able to voice that doubt. The fact that Sanae was laying there asleep, never to wake again, was proof that things had already gone past the point of no return. What finally broke the silence was Yumiko’s voice, which had regained its calm. “…You’ll have to participate in the battle with Igniter now that he has regained his strength. I don’t think you will be fighting directly. However, you should prepare yourself just in case. From now on, even if you get caught up in a battle, you shouldn’t fight without a plan…not like what happened with Biter. We will proactively seek out the Ruby Eyes, neutralize and dispose of them. You mustn’t forget that you are now part of the hunt.” After Yumiko finished her declaration, she stood up from the bed and pointed toward the door. “We’ve prepared room 403 for you to stay in,” she said, adding, “though there’s nothing but a bed.” Following Yumiko as she headed for the door, Minoru finally asked the question that had been bugging him since before they entered the room. “Do you live here, Yumiko?” he asked. “Yes. I commute to school from here. That is, when I feel like going,” Yumiko replied. “…What kind of explanation did you give your parents?” Minoru asked in return. “I told them that I’m attending a boarding school. The real reason my parents believed me was due to Chief Himi’s reputation, his virtuous nature, and his power, though,” replied Yumiko. In other words, she had her family’s memories altered. Did she really have to go that far? Minoru thought, surprised, feeling the weight of the fact that the current situation was dire enough to lead her to do such a thing. As Minoru prepared to leave the room, just as he set his foot out into the hallway, he felt as if someone had called him and turned around, but of course there was no change in the silhouette of the girl as she slept on the bed. 5 When his cell phone rang, Ayato Suka was just preparing to go to sleep. It wasn’t the phone that he was using for work. It was a smartphone he had signed a new contract for two months ago, and there was only one person he had exchanged that number with. It was one of them. As Suka reached for his cell phone, he took a deep breath, sending oxygen to his brain. When meeting with “them,” even over the phone, he had to be very cautious. With his brain clear and ready, he pressed the button to answer the phone. “Good evening, Mr. Igniter.” On the other end of the phone was a woman’s voice, which rang as smooth as silk. Like before, Suka still couldn’t even guess what age she was. “…I told you to stop calling me by that name,” Suka argued. The ones who gave him that wrongheaded name, “Igniter,” were his enemies, the black hunters. But the woman on the phone just laughed. “A name is nothing but a code. It doesn’t help to have more than one. Even I put up with the nickname forced on me by my superiors.” “…Well, that’s your choice to make, Ms. Liquidizer. …Why are you calling me at this hour?” asked Suka. “I’m just checking in on you. Welcome back, Mr. Igniter. It looks like going off to train in the mountains paid off for you. That show you put on for us today was wonderful,” Liquidizer replied. “…Hmph,” Suka muttered, thinking, You say that as if you saw it yourself, but swallowing those words before they made it out of his mouth. If he said something like that, this woman would only reply with something like, “But of course.” The woman didn’t seem to take offense to Suka’s attitude and kept talking in her smooth voice. “Your power is absolutely wonderful. With that much potential, you would easily qualify to become a member of our organization, Mr. Igniter.…So what do you think? Are you still not ready to join us?” “No, I am not,” Suka replied, holding back his irritation. “You all may be like me, but we don’t share the same goals. Not at all. Despite being given powers and an obligation to a cause, none of you act on it. You all just gather together in some hole, thinking only of protecting yourselves.” “Oh, so you are saying that we Ruby Eyes should just go out and slaughter humans as much as we can, until we are hunted and killed by the Jet Eyes? Just like that handsome, sad, stupid gourmet, Biter?” Ms. Liquidizer asked. “…He died?” asked Suka. “Yes, four days ago,” replied the woman. Suka said a silent prayer for Biter, whom he had never met nor spoken to. Biter hadn’t known about Suka, nor should he have known about the existence of any other Ruby Eye, but to Suka, they were one of the same mind. Opening his eyes, Suka spoke in harsher tones than before. “I don’t like your attitude. At the very least Biter was a martyr to our cause. Furthermore, aren’t you partially at fault for his death, for deciding that you didn’t need to approach him?”