Chapter 18

The frustration at letting his mortal enemy get away burned in the pit of his stomach, but that feeling only lasted an instant. It was not yet time to fight them. He had already prepared a proper stage for that battle somewhere else. It was important that he acted his age and moved forward with composure. With the mask for his oxygen canister still pressed against his face with his left hand, Suka gave instructions to the taxi driver. “Stop the car at that intersection over there,” he said. However, the driver, still with a cigarette in his mouth, stretched his neck over the steering wheel and looked up at the sky from the front windshield. “Did you see that, old man?! That motorcycle just flew into the air! Are they filming some sort of stunt?!” It wouldn’t have been unusual if the lack of oxygen in the surrounding air had affected the driver, but he had shut the window and seemed to have escaped the effect. Holding back his irritation, Suka repeated his instruction. “I don’t care. Stop the car,” he said. “All right, all right,” replied the taxi driver, turning on his hazard lights and parking on the side of the road. As he was messing with the taximeter, he opened his mouth again. “Plus, didn’t you give that motorcycle a signal or something a second ago, old man? Are you an actor or something?!” he said in a loud voice. “…” Suka paused. You really just said too much, didn’t you, young one? he thought. Putting his oxygen canister back in his bag, Suka stretched out his right hand and gripped the taxi driver’s oily neck from behind. Snap. By only applying a fraction of his strength, Suka had pulverized the bones of the man’s neck. To Suka’s right hand, which he had strengthened and refined during his training in the mountains, human bone was nothing more than Styrofoam. With only his right hand, Suka moved the slumped body of the driver into the passenger’s seat and stepped out of the taxi. He went around to the driver’s seat and got back in. After shoving the corpse down into the foot space of the passenger’s seat, he set the taxi’s sign to OUT OF SERVICE and started driving off. As he struggled with the pain in his chest, Minoru was conscious of the fact that the motorcycle had leaped, no, soared, into the air. Amplifying the acceleration of the motorcycle in a diagonally upward direction, Yumiko had caused it to lift off from the ground. It was an extreme use of her power, but at the same time it was probably the only way to have escaped the situation. Even so, just how are we going to land? Minoru thought. The motorcycle was coasting more than thirty meters up in the air. Obviously, there was no road beneath the wheels. They shouldn’t be able to accelerate or decelerate any more. However, Yumiko’s body continued to support Minoru without flinching, even as Minoru was starting to lose consciousness. Immediately afterward, the motorcycle reached its peak in flight and began to fall. If they ran into a building from this height, not only the bike, but also even as Third Eye hosts they were sure to take a massive amount of damage. There was no way that Minoru alone could escape to the safety of his defensive shell, and even if he tried, he wasn’t sure he could use his power as he was starting to lose consciousness. In the direction of their fall, there were several low buildings with green-painted roofs. One of those they were approaching at a fast pace. Minoru thought that they were going to crash into that building in a matter of seconds, but his prediction turned out to be wrong. The instant before they had reached the long rectangular building, the motorcycle immediately slowed its descent, as if it had deployed a parachute in midair. They continued to approach the concrete rooftop, and both wheels landed at about the same time. The deeply sinking suspension groaned as it absorbed the shock. Then, as the brakes were deployed, sparks leaped from the rotors as the motorcycle stopped in the center of the roof. It seemed they’d escaped falling to their deaths, but why did their speed immediately drop in midair? Minoru wondered for a bit and then suddenly realized. As the motorcycle fell, there was a drop in speed caused by air resistance, and a decrease in speed implies a negative acceleration, which naturally was the same in nature as a positive acceleration. Yumiko probably amplified that deceleration in order to brake the bike midair. Accelerator…what an astounding power…, Minoru thought as he felt his consciousness quickly fall away from himself. Minoru only hazily felt how he slipped from the rear seat of the motorcycle and tumbled onto the concrete roof. “…!!” Yumiko screamed something Minoru could not quite hear, rushed over, and pulled up the lower half of his body. After yanking off his helmet, Yumiko pulled the small mouthpiece popping out from the neck of her jumpsuit and stuck it into Minoru’s mouth. “…the! Breathe!!” she shouted, and Minoru tried to follow her instructions, but his lungs no longer responded. It was as if hot glue had been washed down his windpipe and into his lungs, hardening over his entire respiratory system. Minoru’s vision grew darker with every second, and he could feel his Third Eye throb deep within his chest. Is this an…emotion? Is it…anger? Or…sadness? The mouthpiece was suddenly taken out of his mouth. Yumiko put it into hers and bent backward, breathing in deep. She then spit out the mouthpiece, and without a moment’s hesitation, she locked lips with Minoru. After securing the airway and holding Minoru’s nose, she vigorously exhaled. The oxygen-rich gas wrenched open his windpipe and flowed into his lungs. Yumiko pulled her face back and put the mouthpiece in her mouth again. She took another deep breath of the high-oxygen-content-enriched air that Professor Riri had procured for them and transferred it again into Minoru’s mouth. Unable to think about anything at all, his body frantically devoured the oxygen that was given to him. As the burning pain in his lungs was washed away, the throbbing of his Third Eye that had felt as if it were going to explode quickly subsided. “…hn…! Kugh…!!” With a cough, Minoru’s lungs finally began to work on their own. Yumiko looked directly into Minoru eyes and shouted, “Can you breathe?! Can you breathe on your own now?!” “Y… Ye-yes…,” said Minoru in a raspy voice. At that moment, Minoru felt something warm and wet dripping onto his cheek. It took a few moments for him to realize that it was Yumiko’s tears. Yumiko seemed to be surprised by her own tears as well and pulled back. She wiped her eyes several times on the sleeve of her jumpsuit, but eventually she gave up, turning her back to Minoru and hunching over as her shoulders shook. Minoru couldn’t say anything, nor could he even get up, so he just continued to stare at her back. Only the clicking sound of the cooling motorcycle overlapped with Yumiko’s sobs. 10 As the old elevator opened noisily onto the fourth floor, Yumiko said, “I’m going to stop by my room,” and walked out. The door then closed, and the elevator continued to ascend. It had been three days since Minoru visited SFD Headquarters, but the fifth floor welcomed Minoru as before with its wide expanse. There was still a lingering bit of red light from the sky that shone in through the windows on the south side. Minoru thought it strange that even on his second visit he had arrived at around the same time. Minoru had left school at 3:55 p.m. He and Tomomi Minowa parted ways on the road by the irrigation stream at 4:20 p.m. Immediately afterward, he was picked up by Yumiko on her motorcycle, and they arrived at Ikebukuro at 4:30 p.m. They then approached Igniter, but due to Minoru’s negligence let him get away, and Professor Riri gave the order to retreat to headquarters. Everything had happened in the course of an hour. …Not to mention that I almost died from Igniter’s oxygen-deprivation attack and was saved by Yumiko…, Minoru thought. Even after he stepped out of the elevator, he stood in front of the doors, mulling over that fact. Yumiko was still on the fourth floor, and Minoru didn’t see Riri or DD when he looked around the room. Instead, in front of the large TV, sitting hunched over, was someone he had not seen before. From what he could see, it was a male and probably a high school student. He was wearing a blazer that had the same color scheme as Yumiko’s. He had large headphones on his head and was holding a game controller in both hands. Minoru ventured over, wondering if he should say something. The TV screen entered his view. On the screen was an early RPG-type video game for a system that had come out long before Minoru was even born. Because the resolution of the game was only a few hundred dots in either direction and it was displayed on a sixty-five-inch LCD screen, every pixel was ridiculously big. Minoru watched on silently as the protagonist’s party on the right attacked with simple pastoral animations. It reminded him of the handheld games he used to play together with his sister Wakaba before the incident. Even though those were of a far higher resolution, he thought that even the kind of game being played in front of him might be entertaining in its own way. After the protagonist’s party easily disposed of the monsters and the screen returned to the field, the game was paused. The male high school student, who was sitting cross-legged on a cushion, leaned back onto the floor and looked up, with controller still in hand, upside down at Minoru. After a smirk, he lifted himself and sprang to his feet smoothly without using his hands and turned toward Minoru. When they faced each other, the high school student was about three centimeters taller than Minoru. He had longish wavy brown hair, and below his bangs were blue plastic-framed glasses. The irises of his eyes behind his glasses were large and well proportioned, the bridge of his nose was high, and the outlines of his face were both sharp and stylish. No matter how you looked at him, he certainly didn’t look very Japanese. In part because of his unaffected smile, Minoru was just able to step forward and introduce himself. “Um… It’s nice to meet you. I’m Utsugi. I just joined the SFD a few days ago,” Minoru said. Whereupon the high school student stared at Minoru with his pale eyes and asked an unexpected question. “Are you the kind of person who levels up your characters? Or are you the kind who tries to get through the game on the lowest level possible?” …What? Minoru thought, taken aback, but he answered truthfully. “I haven’t played any games recently…but I tend to like to play for a long time, so I do a ton of leveling.” The student broke out into a friendly smile and extended his right hand. “I’m the kind who levels up so much that I kill the last boss instantaneously.…The name’s Olivier Saito. Looking forward to working with you.” …O-Olivier? If that’s his real name…did that mean he’s half Japanese, half French? No wonder he’s so cool, thought Minoru, shaking Olivier’s hand, flinching in his strong grip. He was definitely a Third Eye host. After squeezing Minoru’s right hand for a little while, Olivier Saito patted him on the shoulder and said, “All right! Let’s get to work together doing some unnecessary leveling! I’m just about to level up, so after that, I’ll let you join in.” Without waiting for Minoru to answer, Olivier sat back in front of the TV, controller in hand. Before Minoru could even break out of the pose he held from Olivier’s introduction, he heard an incredulous voice behind him. “Hey, Oli-V, don’t go and make the newbie your level-up slave.” When Minoru turned around, right behind him was Denjirou “DD” Daimon, with his trademark cap put on backward. “Hurry up and save your game, man. If you’re still doing that when the time comes for our meeting, Yumiko’ll pull the plug on you,” he said. “Yeah, I really don’t want to repeat that tragedy,” said Olivier, shrugging his shoulders, before saving the game and turning off both the cutting-edge TV and the old system connected to it. “Sorry ’bout that, Utsugi. What was your code name again…? ‘Isolator’? Anyway, we’ll have to have fun leveling up some other time.” “Su-sure, absolutely,” Minoru replied, surprised that Olivier knew about him. Just a minute ago, DD had called Olivier “Oli-V,” and Minoru had heard that nickname before. He was one of the SFD members who were out tracking Igniter when Minoru came to headquarters before. …Which means that Olivier and DD are partners? Minoru thought to himself as he watched them walk ahead of him. Even though they looked mismatched, something about them both seemed to fit, and Minoru unthinkingly cast his eyes down. Minoru had remembered that he made a huge mistake on his very first mission that he was partnered with Yumiko and wanted to run away somewhere. But then, Minoru heard the sound of the elevator reaching the fifth floor. Riri Isa, who followed Yumiko out of the elevator, took one look at Minoru, DD, and Olivier and said, “I see you’re all here! Well, then, let’s start the meeting!” While Minoru was listening to Yumiko, who had changed out of her leather jumpsuit and into her uniform, give her report, he spent the whole time making himself look small. Professor Riri, who stood in front of the eighty-inch monitor, sighed once the report had reached a pause. “You let him get away, huh…? We were so close this time…” She then turned her gaze to DD. “How far were you able to track him?” As DD answered, he had a stern look on his face. “We found the taxi that Igniter was riding in at the small underpass at West Ogu in the Arakawa district. There was a corpse in the passenger seat of the car, but the cause of death was not burning or suffocation but due to a compound compression fracture of his cervical vertebrae. It is unclear where Igniter went after he left, and the drive recorder for the taxi was also removed.” “I see. Did screening for fingerprints and other forensic tests bring up any results?” Riri asked. “I was not able to get any fingerprints off of the victim’s neck,” DD continued. “Instead, I found residue from liquid bandages, which he must be putting on his hands to hide his fingerprints. I found many fingerprints and hair follicles in the backseat, but to be honest, I don’t see us pulling any useful information from all of that.” “You’re probably right,” Riri said. “Sifting through the countless passengers who rode in that taxi to find leads would be very difficult… I guess our last hope depends on Mikkun’s memory.” His name suddenly called, Minoru shrank away even more. “…Mikkun. You’re the only one who has gotten a clear look at Igniter’s face up close. Now this is an old-fashioned way of doing things, but I think it’s worth a try,” Riri continued, pulling a sketchbook, pencil, and eraser from a desk in front of the monitor. Minoru, who had a bad feeling about what was going to happen next, asked, “…Umm, what is it exactly that you want me to do with that?” “What do you think? I want you to draw Igniter’s face,” she replied. Ten minutes later. After a long and difficult battle with the sketchbook, Minoru handed it over to Professor Riri. The fact that Riri’s expression didn’t change one bit, even after she flipped the cover to look inside, was testament to a level of restraint well beyond her age. “…Hmm,” she said and then carefully tore out the page and took it to a nearby scanner, and it was immediately enlarged and displayed on the screen. The first one to react was Olivier. He leaned back in his chair, barely keeping from flipping over, and kicked both of his legs in the air as he laughed. “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You call that a human?! It looks like a hobgoblin or something to me!” “Hey, Oli-V. Minoru gave it his best shot, so it’s wrong to laugh…fwa-ha…” Even DD seemed to have trouble containing his laughter, and it sounded like he had a hard time breathing. Minoru had expected this, but even he got a little hurt to be laughed at so much, so he retorted, “…I’ve never drawn anyone’s face before, so… Anyway! Igniter is a thin man who looks like he’s in about the first half of his sixties, with whitening hair all pulled back… The kind of person who you might think would be the vice-principal of a school.” After adding that explanation, Minoru returned to his seat and Riri clapped her hands twice together. “Now, Oli-V, DD, stop laughing. This is valuable information. I’ll put together a montage later based on this. He…is a lot older than I expected. Mikkun, is there anything else in particular that you remember about him?” asked Riri. Minoru sat silent, thinking. As his gaze wandered, Olivier and DD were still shaking with laughter, but Yumiko’s face was completely expressionless. On their way back to headquarters, after letting Igniter get away, Yumiko had hardly said a word. When they got off the bike, Minoru had thanked her again for saving his life, but she had just nodded without meeting his eye. At first he had thought that she was embarrassed for crying in front of him, but he had a feeling that it was something else. It seemed as if she had shut herself away inside her own heart… After shaking off those thoughts, Minoru replied to Riri, “Well…now that you mention it, I felt as if I had seen him somewhere before.” “Really? Recently?” Riri asked. “No…and I didn’t think that when I saw the side of his face, but when he looked straight at me, I thought, Huh? for a second and got that feeling,” he said. The moment Igniter had turned to face Minoru when he activated his power, with that intent to kill in his eyes, Minoru had felt a very faint stimulation of his memories. However, Minoru was terrible at remembering faces. He couldn’t even remember the face of the librarian he saw at the library nearly every day and at least once every three days, so it was unthinkable for him to remember the face of someone who, for instance, he had just passed by one day on the street. “…I’m sorry. I can’t remember,” Minoru muttered, and Riri looked down, her expression melancholy. “I see… Well, while I’m putting together the montage, you might remember something else. For now I’ll call this meeting to a close. DD, I would like you to continue to be on the lookout for Igniter. Everyone else is to be on standby until we have any new information.” “Oh, before that, can I have a minute?” “Hm? What is it, Oli-V?” asked Riri. Olivier Saito, who seemed to finally get his convulsions of laughter under control, stood up in a graceful motion and turned his bluish-gray eyes toward Yumiko. “Yumiko, in the report you gave earlier there was one part that I didn’t quite understand. You said that you found Igniter, was attacked, and retreated, right? Why didn’t you launch a counterattack?” Olivier asked. With her head down, Yumiko visibly twitched. Minoru also fidgeted in his chair. In her report, Yumiko had omitted part of what had happened. In other words, she had omitted the fact that Minoru had inhaled oxygen-deprived air and had nearly died. Yumiko went silent for a little while, but then finally said, “Because it was dangerous.” “Well, obviously. We’re fighting Ruby Eyes, you know?” Olivier replied. His attitude was still easygoing, but there was a sharpness in the tone of his voice. “But I mean, if we keep running away instead of fighting, just because it’s dangerous, is there really any meaning in us being here at all?” “…Wait! Umm…,” said Minoru, finding his determination and standing up. Minoru needed to explain that Yumiko was not at fault. Minoru looked steadily at Olivier’s well-proportioned face and continued on, stuttering. “Umm… It’s my fault. I… Even though Professor prepared compressed air canisters for us, I didn’t have it ready…and… It looked like I was going to be done in by Igniter’s oxygen-deprivation attack, so Yumiko retreated. I’m sorry. I…made a mistake,” finished Minoru with a weak smile on his face as he bowed his head in apology. After Minoru did that, Olivier made a slight nod and smiled as well. “Ah… I see. Gotcha. I mean, it happens, right? We all make mistakes,” said Olivier, who then walked over to Minoru and patted his left shoulder. Olivier then took his right hand off of Minoru’s shoulder, raising it high as he clenched it into a fist… Seconds later an explosive force crashed into Minoru’s left cheek, and it sent him flying before he could even react. Minoru only realized that Olivier had punched him after he had been knocked back five meters and collided with the concrete wall. Minoru then slid down the wall and onto the floor. This was the second time this month Minoru had been punched by someone. However, the first time was during the incident involving Tomomi Minowa when he was punched by an upperclassman of the track club; he had subconsciously activated his shell, so he hadn’t felt any pain.