Chapter 21

But then Nakakubo’s lips moved and twisted into a smile. His left hand moved into a pocket of his work clothes and grabbed onto something. Even if Minoru screamed out a warning, he wouldn’t make it in time. He didn’t know how much oxyhydrogen Igniter would be able to generate, but the shock wave of its explosion would be faster than sound. No matter how fast Accelerator Yumiko was, there was no way that she would be able to escape unscathed. Minoru could only think of one other way to save Yumiko from the impending explosion. This isn’t a matter of can or cannot do, Minoru thought. I’ll do it. I will do this. Minoru clenched his teeth, stood up, and then ran forward toward the pool as fast as he could. Here they come!! Nakakubo thought, feeling the movement of oxygen molecules before he could even see them. From between the palms on the north side of the pool, about thirty meters away, a black shadow came flying toward him at an incredible speed. Her long hair flowed behind her as she came out of the faint darkness. He could see a fluttering skirt, a stun baton in her right hand, and a knife in her left. It was his mortal enemy, that Accelerator girl. The fact that the ground at his enemy’s feet was sand worked to Nakakubo’s advantage. In order to create sufficient acceleration to work off of, the girl had taken several steps in the sand without using her power. Not wanting to waste the extra two seconds of time given to him, Nakakubo took his company cell phone out of his pocket, crushed it in his left hand, and threw it as hard as he could toward her. In the air, the lithium battery, which had shorted, let out a white flame. At the exact same moment… Nakakubo extended his right hand toward the water’s surface in front of her, and… He howled. “Ooooooxygeeeeeeeennnn!!!! Ahhh!!!!” The eye in his hand opened wide and let out a crimson beam of light. It was so hard! The bones in his hand creaked and his tendons stretched. The muscles in the back of his hand leaped up abnormally and split his skin, spraying a mist of blood. Oxygen. Molecules of oxygen! Heed my call! Purify! “Aaaahhhh!” The pain was so much that he felt dizzy, and a splintered tip of bone shot out from his right hand. But finally Nakakubo grasped it and clenched his hand into a fist. A red light shone brilliantly through the blood of his hand, and then… Pssh! The sharp sound of an impact shook the air, and the surface of the water instantly vaporized. A hemisphere of water ten meters in diameter was gone. The air wavered like a mirage where the water had been. In the space of air that girl was just about to charge through, a large quanity of oxygen and hydrogen molecules were separated, waiting for the time for them to reunite. In other words, for combustion. In all of nature this was the most beautiful, simplest, and most dangerous kind of combustion. A shiver of electric excitement raced up Nakakubo’s spine. Raising his broken right hand high into the air, Nakakubo fell backward into the water… …just as his cell phone, showering sparks, made contact with the explosive oxyhydrogen gas. Minoru ran. He knew that he was running, but he could hardly feel himself kicking the ground beneath his feet. However, he raced forward at an incredible speed and saw Yumiko’s silhouette dash forward toward him from his right. Bursting through the palm trees and across the beach, in just three meters he would come into contact with Yumiko. But just then, the water’s surface to his left disappeared with a strange rumbling sound. Igniter had separated the water molecules. At the same time, something engulfed in white flames came flying toward him. He didn’t have a second before the gas ignited and exploded. There was only one way to protect Yumiko now. It was not enough to activate his defensive shield and stand in front of her. Yumiko had already rushed into the explosive oxyhydrogen air. Even if Minoru became a shield for her, the heat and shock wave would easily destroy Yumiko’s body. He couldn’t just cover her… He had to take her into his defensive shell. The shell activated by the Third Eye in Minoru’s chest materialized about three centimeters away from him, and in that instant everything on that boundary that Minoru rejected as a foreign substance would be ejected from his shell. No matter how small Yumiko was, there was no possible way she could fit in that space of three centimeters. So normally one would expect Yumiko to be ejected. At least, that’s what would happen if Minoru considered her a “foreign substance.” If it was a random person on the street, that’s exactly what would happen. Only eleven days had passed since Minoru had met Yumiko in Akigase Park. In the back of Minoru’s mind, the times Minoru saw Yumiko flashed before his eyes. Yumiko, her eyes flashing as she stormed over to Minoru. Yumiko, her mouth stuffed with spaghetti. Yumiko, looking down beside Sanae. Yumiko, staring at the scars on her leg. And Yumiko after she had saved Minoru’s life, her back turned to him, crying. At that moment he finally thought of the sheer magnitude of the pain and suffering she held in her chest. He couldn’t let her die here. He didn’t want her to die. One day he wanted to see her true smile, after she had overcome all her painful memories. This is not for me, Minoru thought. This is not simply because I don’t want to increase the number of painful memories I have. …I want to protect her! “Yumiko!” Minoru shouted. Minoru’s vision to his left had gone pure white. In that instant Minoru wrapped both arms around Yumiko and held her tightly, activating his defensive shell. A suddenly expanding light engulfed them both, and the world melted away. In the scene devoid of color and sound, Minoru saw two black shadows rotating as they were sent flying. It was Yumiko’s stun baton and knife.