Chapter 16

“We had no need for an inelegant power like his,” Liquidizer replied with a chuckle. “But you are different, Mr. Igniter. Your power is beautiful. Our doors are always open to you. If you ever change your mind, just give us a call.” “…Hmph,” muttered Suka as he moved to end the call. But just before he could, some unsettling words reached his ears. “Be careful. The black ones have already started to move. This time they are determined to catch… No, they are determined to kill you,” Liquidizer said before ending the call from her end. Suka stared at his phone for a minute before returning it to its charging stand. “…I’m the one who’s going to be doing the hunting, Ms. Liquidizer,” he muttered. 6 Minoru, who didn’t sleep well on his brand-new bed in its unfamiliar room, left SFD Headquarters at 6:00 a.m. so that he could return to his home in Saitama. The one who saw him off at the exit of the wooded area around the apartment complex, in the freezing cold, was DD, whom Minoru hardly had a chance to speak with the previous night. “Sorry it’s just me, but the others tend to stay up late and never get up in the morning,” DD said. “Don’t worry about it…,” Minoru said, smiling a little as he remembered the (no-alcohol) welcome party thrown for him in the large fifth-floor room that lasted late into the night. Then, after hesitating a few seconds, Minoru turned to ask DD something that had been bothering him for a while. “…Do all of the SFD members live in that apartment building?” he asked. “Yeah. The eight rooms on the third and fourth floors are used for our private residences,” DD answered. “Eight rooms…,” Minoru repeated, thinking back over the names of the members he knew. On the fourth floor, room 404 was Yumiko and Sanae’s room. The neighboring room 403 was for Minoru to use. There was also Professor Riri; DD; Oli-V, who didn’t return that night; and the mysterious “Lindenberger.” It didn’t seem that Chief Himi lived at headquarters, so that left two additional rooms. As if he had read Minoru’s thoughts, DD nodded. “There are also some members you probably haven’t been introduced to yet… I mean, I’m not sure you even can be introduced to one of them…” “Huh? What do you mean by that?” asked Minoru. “It has to do with her power. I mean, even I haven’t seen her face in the two months I’ve been here. Maybe you’ll be able to meet her if you’re lucky.” “Well…okay.” That wasn’t exactly a clear explanation, but Minoru didn’t have much time so he decided to worry about that later. Instead, he asked the question he had been wanting to ask most. “So… How is everyone explaining this to their parents?” “Oh…that,” DD, Denjirou Daimon, replied, pulling at the brim of his trademark cap. “Well, it’s sort of done on a case-by-case basis, but basically we have the chief do a little memory manipulation.” Everyone had that done?! thought Minoru, surprised. But DD quickly waved his head back and forth as if to say, “It’s not what you think.” “It’s not like we made them forget we exist or something,” DD explained. “Yumiko and Oli-V have it so everyone thinks they’re at a boarding school, and for me, it’s that I’m in a study abroad program in France for the culinary arts. No one plans to return home until everything has been taken care of here.…To be honest, I wasn’t planning on saying this yet, but Utsugi, I think that you should do the same.” Minoru immediately knew why DD was telling him this. It was dangerous. If your identity was exposed to the Ruby Eyes, it was not unlikely that your family would be attacked. Actually, Minoru’s adoptive sister, Norie, was attacked by Biter and kidnapped. Though she got away unscathed in the end, she could have easily suffered a grave injury or—and he didn’t even want to think about this—she could have been killed. When put that way, it would certainly give him peace of mind to take DD up on his offer. However, at the same time, it would put an end to the “ever-repeating daily life” that Minoru sought. His routine that took him back and forth from his home and school and the library would disappear, and he would be subject to a large number of new memories. Minoru didn’t think he could handle that. All of the memories that Minoru had would flow deep into his brain and attempt to connect with that one incident. Once the switch was flipped, Minoru would be forced to relive that memory. The memory of that terrible incident, which took the lives of his kind parents and his beloved older sister Wakaba. Already, at that very moment, Minoru found it hard to breathe. Both of his arms went cold and numb, and his sense of balance began to suffer. His vision tilted, and a dusty smell filled his nose as he remembered that dark, cramped storage compartment under the floor. Thump, thump, thump went the sound of violent footsteps, closing in. Minoru could feel his heart rapidly beating, like an alarm bell. Or maybe it wasn’t his heart that was beating, but that parasitic black eye that fed on the wounds of human hearts… “…tsugi. Utsugi, can you hear me?” His right shoulder shaken, Minoru suddenly looked up. In front of him was DD, who looked confused and suspicious. “Are you all right, man?” he asked. “Uh… Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing,” said Minoru quickly and a bit frantically, shaking his head as he took one step back. He readjusted his messenger bag, which contained the small canister Riri gave him. “I guess I should get going now. If you call or text me, I’ll come running as fast as I can… I’ll consider what you said about moving in,” Minoru said. “Yeah, please do. Also, make sure you stay alert in case you catch the scent of a Ruby Eye. Even I can’t sniff them out if they’re in a place as far away as Saitama,” said DD, who seemed sincerely worried. “I’ll be careful. Tell everyone I wish them well. …I’ll see you later,” said Minoru, waving back at DD before raising his scarf to his mouth and walking down the path out of the wooded area around the apartment complex. When Minoru went through the rusted gates that led out into the adjacent two-lane street, a middle school student in a tracksuit who was just crossing by looked suspiciously at Minoru. If due to Chief Himi’s barrier, outsiders really couldn’t perceive the path leading to SFD Headquarters, it must have looked as if Minoru had suddenly sprung out from under the trees. Using the map on his smartphone, Minoru walked to the Tokyo Metro West Waseda Station and took the Fukutoshin line to Ikebukuro, where he switched over to an express train on the JR Saikyou line. As it was early Saturday morning, the train was fairly empty, and after dozing off for a while, Minoru arrived at Yonohonmachi Station, which was the closest to his house. For the nearly two kilometers between the station and his house, Minoru took off his coat and scarf and did some light jogging. Compared to his usual daily routine, it was only one-fifth of the distance, but he told himself that was enough for today, and so he did a light cooldown routine in front of his house. Minoru glanced at his watch as he stretched his legs. It was exactly one hour since he had left headquarters. Given the fact that he had waited a while at Ikebukuro Station for the express train, he was surprised he had gotten home so quickly, but all the same, it would be hard for him to immediately respond if he got a message that a Ruby Eye had appeared. If I really want to be serious about fighting alongside the members of the SFD, I really should think about moving in to headquarters, but still…, Minoru thought indecisively to himself as he finished his stretches and picked up his bag and coat. Minoru’s adoptive sister, Norie, was probably still asleep, so he had to make sure not to make a sound when he opened the door and went into the house. But before he unlocked that brand-new door that had just been replaced, he breathed in the cold air deeply through his nose and concentrated his thoughts on what he could smell. Minoru couldn’t smell that characteristic violent, animalistic scent that gave away the presence of a Ruby Eye, but that wasn’t enough to guarantee that everything was safe. A Ruby Eye’s scent could only be detected when their power is being activated. As long as Minoru lived in this house, there would never be zero risk. I know, I know, but…, thought Minoru, swallowing a sigh. He then turned the key to unlock the door and entered the house. As soon as he did, the sound of slippers hitting the floor suddenly came close, and in the next moment, Minoru found himself tightly bound. “Welcome back! Mii!” “Uwah, w-wait a second, Norie!” Minoru replied as he struggled to escape from her embrace, but his adoptive sister, Norie, wouldn’t let him go. “I-I’m home… But what’s the matter?” asked Minoru. “Don’t you know?” Norie replied. Norie, a thirty-one-year-old who worked at the prefectural office as an assistant supervisor, the spitting image of a hardworking career woman, had an expression on her face that could only be described as depressed. “This house is too big for just one person…,” she said. “Too big for one person…? Aren’t I always telling you that you should go ahead and start looking for a husband without waiting for me to graduate?” Minoru replied. “There you go saying those things again…,” Norie said, puffing her cheeks as Minoru finally was able to escape from her embrace, before going on to say something absolutely outrageous. “I mean, since we’ve come this far, I guess I should just go ahead and wait two years and marry you!” Thump! Minoru stubbed his right toe on the step up into the hall and shook his head back and forth as he writhed in pain. “Wh-what are you saying?! Two years? I-I’m still a high school student and…even though we’re cousins five degrees removed, it’s against the law to marry someone of the same family they’re adopted into!” “What…? Really?” “Really!” Minoru said. Actually, it wasn’t necessarily against the law for the child of a legal guardian and an adopted child to get married, but Minoru didn’t plan on telling her that. Before Norie could say something like, “Well, we can just unadopt you first!” Minoru put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face the kitchen. “…Anyway, I smell something odd coming from the kitchen,” said Minoru.