The wooden bedsprings creaked quietly and lightly as he felt something soft against the front of his body. It was a very strange experience: There was definitely something underneath him, but it looked as though he were simply floating above the bed. No matter how hard he squinted at the now slightly deeper indent on the bed, he could see nothing but blankets. Detecting the faintest scent of shampoo, Minoru swallowed and spoke with a dry mouth. “U-um…a-am I too heavy?” “It’s fine,” Suu responded, her voice as level as ever. “I’m a Jet Eye, too, after all.” She had a good point—to a Third Eye host’s enhanced physical strength, the weight of one person was no big burden. But what about mentally speaking? Minoru thought, despite himself. No matter how scientific the goal might be, technically speaking, he was still on a bed pressing down on a person he had just met today. “Um…you’re not scared?” he blurted out half unintentionally. “Only a little,” Suu admitted, her voice close to Minoru’s ear as she continued on. “…I’m sorry. I said I just wanted to know more about our powers, but the truth is, that was only half my reason. The other half was…to test the limits of my own fear.” “To test the limits…?” “Yes. Of all the men I’ve met, you have the least threatening gaze I’ve ever seen. I thought, if I can be near this person without being afraid, then maybe someday…” Trailing off, Suu lightly touched Minoru’s hands with her transparent fingertips. “There, see? I’m not scared. So you shouldn’t be scared, either, Minoru… Whenever you’re ready.” In truth, Minoru had only half understood the meaning of Suu’s explanation at best. But for just a moment, the warmth of her fingertips on his hands made him forget his negative thoughts. “…Here I go.” Without a second thought about what might happen if he failed, Minoru activated his protective shell. The room had seemed quiet enough before, but only when it disappeared completely did the volume of the background noise that had previously been audible become apparent. The sound of cars passing on the road in front of the house, the low hum of the ventilation system, the voices from the TV that Norie was watching in the living room—all of them vanished at once, leaving behind a profoundly complete silence. Immediately, though, that silence was broken by the sound of shallow breathing. Minoru had expected the invisible Suu to be repelled by his protective shell and pushed farther into the bed, but in his now blue-tinted field of vision, he saw no such thing. The blankets on the bed had only shifted ever so slightly. Which meant… “…Did it…work…?” The fact that he could hear Suu’s quiet whisper was another surprise. “Y-yes…it looks like it did,” he replied in an equally hushed tone, realizing he had been holding his breath. Why he had succeeded on the first try now when he had failed so many times in the experiment room was a complete mystery to Minoru. All he knew for sure was that he really did have the ability to bring other people into his protective shell. In other words, this power hadn’t come from fear or apathy toward others at all. But in that case, what was the source—the emotional trauma—that had created this invisible barrier? As Minoru contemplated this thought, Suu once again spoke near his ear. “Amazing. There really is a barrier there. It doesn’t feel like anything… No texture, no temperature or friction, yet it’s completely solid…” “Ah…Suu, you can feel the shell?” In response, he felt her nod, her hair brushing invisibly against his cheek. “Yes, I feel it. Which means its shape must be dependent on your posture.” “Th-then that means that if I’m not careful about how I move…” Minoru gulped. Usually, the shell projected about three centimeters around Minoru’s body and adjusted to match his movements. So right now, it must have expanded just enough to encompass Suu’s body as well. So it’d probably be impossible to walk around or run like this…, Minoru thought. At that moment, Suu said something to even further startle Minoru to his very core. “Also…what’s that noise?” “Wh…?” Minoru had gotten so used to it that he had completely forgotten about it. When he produced his shell and cut off all outside noise, those sounds were mysteriously replaced by a low, rhythmic thudding. Over time, he had come to assume that this was produced by the Third Eye in his chest, indicating that it was working and that he could hear it pulsing through his body. However… “Y…you can hear this noise, too, Suu?!” “Yes. It’s a very mysterious sound…” “D-does it sound to you like it’s coming from my chest?” “No. It’s…closer than that. I wonder… It almost feels like I’ve heard it before somewhere…” Minoru sank into uncertain silence, but before long, Suu spoke again. “Minoru. I can’t really move right now, so I need you to reach into my breast pocket and pull out my smartphone.” “Huh?” Minoru squeaked, then shook his head quickly and lightly. “I-I-I can’t!” “I’m not asking you to do anything difficult. Come on, hurry.” “Th…then at least deactivate your ability so I can see your pocket…” “If I do that, then this whole phenomenon might fall apart. It’s not as if I’m expecting you to enjoy it, so calm down. We have to record this sound and bring it to the Professor so she can analyze it.” Two minutes later. “U…um…” Sitting on the edge of the bed next to Suu, who had deactivated her ability and was once again visible, Minoru was keenly aware that he was sweating profusely. “Now that I think about it, wouldn’t it have been easier for me to just deactivate the shell for a moment and borrow your phone so I could record it myself…?” Holding her ultrasmall phone to her ear, Suu blinked for a moment as she processed Minoru’s words. “…You’re right,” she muttered. “But it’s better that we avoid activating our powers too frequently. Keeping it to a single time was for the best.” Only as he heard these words did Minoru realize he had forgotten himself and activated his shell in his own home. Not only that, but Suu had used her ability, too. If any Ruby Eyes had been nearby, there was a chance they’d been detected. Noticing Minoru’s anxiety, Suu put her smartphone back in her pocket and turned to him. “Don’t worry. I’ve been monitoring this neighborhood all day, and besides, my ability’s detection radius is extremely small.” “D-detection radius?” “Yes. It’s the range of how close a Ruby Eye would have to be to pick up the scent of a Jet Eye’s ability or vice versa.” Minoru was already quite familiar with this phenomenon. Whenever a Ruby Eye used their ability near him, he smelled an intense, almost animalistic scent of dirt and iron. He didn’t know what it smelled like for them, only that Ruby Eyes could detect Jet Eye powers in the same way. However, he hadn’t realized that the range of this effect could vary depending on the individual. “The detection radius of a Third Eye user’s ability varies based on the nature and scope of that ability,” Suu explained to a blinking Minoru. “To put it simply, the bigger the effect that the atom manipulation has, the wider the radius. In the SFD, members like Divider and Accelerator have a detection radius of about twenty-four meters. By contrast, Speculator’s and Searcher’s radii are close to zero.” “I see…” Thinking about each of the mentioned SFD members’ abilities, Minoru nodded. Certainly, Divider (Olivier) and Accelerator (Yumiko) had abilities that affected their whole bodies or the area around them, while Speculator’s (Professor Riri Isa) involved only her own brain, and the power Searcher (DD) used had virtually no effect on reality at all. But by that logic, a powerful effect like Suu’s invisibility seemed like it would have a very large detection radius. As if reading his thoughts, Suu shrugged lightly. “It’s not as though I turn my body into glass or anything. I cause the light around me to alter for only a fraction of a second at a time… In fact, in a battle a little while ago, a Ruby Eye didn’t even notice me until I was less than sixty-one centimeters away.” “Sixty-one centimeters… So that’s your ‘detection radius,’ then?” Minoru thought some more. Where does my protective shell fall in this equation? Creating an impenetrable wall around me certainly seems like it’s having a major effect on reality. Does that mean I would have a wide detection radius like Olivier and Yumiko? “According to the Professor,” Suu said, her brow furrowed as if she, too, were thinking about something, “your isolation power should have an enormous effect on the environment, with a detection radius several times that of Divider, but…according to the data from your encounters with Biter and Igniter, it most likely goes up to only about nine meters. She thought it was very strange…” Suu fell silent for a moment, looking at Minoru with her mysterious lilac eyes. “…But after entering your protective shell earlier, I think I might understand. I believe your ability gives off a scent only in the instant it’s activated. Once the shell is completely formed, it blocks out even its own detection radius… It really is the ultimate form of isolation. In that moment, it was as if you and I were alone in our own separate world… Maybe that is the source of your power.” Suu stood up smoothly and walked toward the door. As she grasped the doorknob with her slim white hand, however, she paused, and spoke without turning back to face Minoru. “Be sure to report the results of today’s experiment to the Professor for me… I enjoyed talking with you today, and the sushi was delicious. Thank you, and I’ll see you later.” She turned the doorknob, pushing open the door. As she turned her head ever so slightly on her way out of the room, Minoru thought he saw a faint smile on her lips. 2 Two days later, December 30, 2:00 p.m. Standing in Toyama Park in front of the path that led to SFD Headquarters, Minoru hesitated. When Suu Komura had told him two days ago that he should report their experiment to the Professor, he had nodded—but now, he wasn’t sure how he was going to tell her. He’d met Suu for the first time, invited her in for dinner, chatted with her in his room, and ended up conducting a test on his bed to bring her into his protective shell and succeeded on the first try… No matter how he phrased it, it wasn’t going to sound good. “…Why am I the one who has to report this, anyway?” Minoru grumbled into the scarf that covered the bottom half of his face, his hands shoved into his pockets. Still, if it was only the Professor, it wouldn’t be that bad. The real problem was what he was going to say to Accelerator, Yumiko Azu, after having attempted the same experiment with her a few days earlier and failing so repeatedly and spectacularly that she ended up skinning the tip of her nose. …But I’m sure she’ll be taking today off or else be out in the field somewhere, so I won’t have to see her. Yeah, definitely. Reassuring himself with this groundless line of wishful thinking, Minoru began to walk down the path into the forest. Arriving outside the seemingly run-down apartment complex that housed SFD Headquarters, Minoru stepped into the ancient elevator. When the doors creaked open on the fifth floor, he stepped out into the spacious room that made up the entirety of the floor. Minoru crept quietly into the room, but as he looked around, he saw that his prayers had been answered. Sitting cross-legged in front of the big-screen TV was Olivier Saitou, and Professor Riri Isa was holed up in her research booth, peering at a monitor. Nobody else seemed to be around. Secretly breathing a sigh of relief, Minoru then took a deeper breath to steel himself before venturing to greet the two. “H…hello.” The Professor gave him a quick wave, but Olivier remained hunched over without so much as a twitch in response; he was probably wrapped up in level grinding in another old-school RPG. With a rueful smile, Minoru was changing out his shoes for a pair of slippers when the Professor called to him from her small room on the west side of the floor. “Sorry, Mikkun, but our meeting’s going to be delayed by fifteen minutes or so.” “Ah…sure.” Minoru nodded, then glanced around the room uncertainly. For the time being, he decided to settle on the sofa behind Olivier. Looking over Olivier’s shoulder at the TV, Minoru saw that Divider was playing a JRPG series that even he was familiar with. Judging by the quality of the graphics, Minoru had to wonder if this game had come out near the beginning of this century. Tense, urgent music played through the sound bar that was set up underneath the TV as a giant monster rampaged around on the screen. At least I’ll have a boss fight to entertain me while I wait for the Professor, Minoru thought, already leaning forward in his seat. Then he noticed something odd. The boss monster was unleashing deadly attacks, but the party of heroes facing it wasn’t moving in the slightest. The game had a real-time battle system, so the player had to enter commands or the protagonists would simply stand there being hit by the enemy’s attacks. In fact, of the three-member party on the screen, two of the members had already run out of HP and fainted. And the remaining member’s HP was already in the red. Minoru leaned over on his side to look at Olivier’s hands, and sure enough, he wasn’t moving a single finger on the controller. Maybe he had some strategic reason for not attacking the boss, but at this rate, he was going to get wiped out. Concerned, Minoru timidly called out to the motionless back in front of him. “Um…Oli-V?” There was no response. Minoru tried again, a little louder this time. “Oli-V, your party’s going to lose…” At his words, Olivier’s broad shoulders jerked suddenly. “Huh? Wh…aaah!” At the exact same moment as Divider’s shout, the last remaining protagonist cried out in unison and collapsed with a thud. The screen faded to a dark gray, the GAME OVER text mercilessly large in the center. “Ah…ahhh…” The crestfallen Divider’s shoulders sagged as he let the controller fall from his hands. For a moment it looked like he would stay that way indefinitely, but then he shook his head and groaned. “And I was almost at the final boss, too…” Heaving a sigh, he reached out and ejected the game disc from the system, which brought the screen back to the game system’s menu. Then, putting the disc back into its case, he turned to Minoru with a strained smile. “Yo, Mikkun. How’s it goin’?” “Ah, um…very well, thank you.” Now that he could see all of Olivier’s handsomely featured face, Minoru noticed that there was a flesh-colored hydrocolloid bandage over his right cheek, as well as what looked to be some blisters hidden by his bangs and blue-framed glasses. He seemed to be ignoring Minoru’s gaze as he looked down at the game, but eventually he raised his head. “Hey, Mikkun, do you have this console?” “Huh? Y…yes, I think so…” In his current state of affairs, Minoru couldn’t even remotely afford any of the current-generation consoles, but this older system had been one of Norie’s favorites when she was younger, so there was one tucked away on the AV shelf in the living room. “Cool, then play this.” Olivier unceremoniously dropped the game into Minoru’s lap. “Huh…?!” Minoru looked up at him, eyes wide. “But you’re still playing it, aren’t you? You said you were almost at the last boss!” “Yeah, well…” Olivier shrugged casually. “When I get a single game over, I stop playing that game for good.” “Game over…? But you must’ve saved your game, right? Why wouldn’t you just start over from your last save…?” Looking as though he didn’t know how to respond to Minoru’s automatic question, Olivier stood up and sat down next to him on the couch. “…Hey, Mikkun. What do you think the SAVE function in an RPG is, really?” “What is it…?” Minoru mumbled. Unsure what was meant by the question, he went with the most obvious answer: “It’s a function that stores your progress in the game on a memory card, right…?” “Well, yeah, sure. But that’s just what it means to us when we’re playing a video game in the real world. What I mean is, what do you think that SAVE means to, say…the hero and the demon lord and the world they’re fighting in?” “Ahh…” Finally grasping the meaning of Olivier’s words, Minoru tilted his head and responded more thoughtfully. “I guess…it’d be like magic or some kind of miracle? Like in older games, when you entered a password instead of being able to save…didn’t they call those passwords ‘resurrection spells’ sometimes?” “Yeah, exactly. But y’know…” Olivier paused, and for a moment, there was a hint of intensity in his expression. “If that’s the case, why can’t the demon lord save, too?” “Huh…?” “I mean, he’s doing his best, too, in his own way, right? Coming up with battle tactics, sending his minions after the hero, that kind of thing. And sometimes, he does really well and wipes out the hero’s whole party. But does he get to celebrate his victory? No! Because the hero alone has the power to turn back time for the whole world. And he’ll do it, over and over for eternity, until it finally ends in the demon lord’s death. Man, if I were that demon lord, I’d get pissed off and quit right away.” Dumbfounded by Olivier’s speech, Minoru waited a few moments after he’d finished before venturing another question. “So when you said you stop playing a game for good once you get a game over, that’s not because it’d be a pain to start over from the last SAVE point, it’s because, um…it seems unfair to start over? So in the game world when you’re playing, as soon as the hero’s party is defeated, it means…the demon lord has won…?” Olivier grinned wryly, sinking deeper into the couch. “Yeah, it sounds pretty silly when you put it that way. But I’m not the one who came up with this whole ‘saving is unfair’ thing, just so you know. But, like…once the idea got into my head, I couldn’t stand seeing a hero who just starts over whenever he loses, y’know?” “Um…I do kind of understand where you’re coming from, I guess…,” Minoru murmured, examining the hero and heroine in the game’s box art with somewhat mixed emotions. Olivier snickered and elbowed him lightly. “I’m not saying you now have to play like that, too, or anything, Mikkun.” “R-right… Oh, but I guess that explains why you’re always grinding levels way more than necessary. So you won’t get a game over…” “Pretty much. It is crazy boring, though… But you can actually learn a few things from playing permadeath-style.” “Huh…?” Shifting his gaze off to the right, Olivier looked up at the high ceiling and answered with a sigh. “For one thing, even if you max out all your levels and prepare everything to a T, all it takes is one moment of spacing out for you to lose everything. And another thing… At any given moment, even the smallest action can turn into something that you can never take back.” Divider stretched out his legs and stood up, returning to his usual nonchalant self. “Hey, looks like the meeting’s gonna start. C’mon.” Minoru tucked the game into his messenger bag and followed after Olivier, though there was one more question he wished he could have asked. Who was it who first told you that saving is unfair? In the research room, several folding chairs had been lined up around the 203-centimeter monitor, one of which was already occupied by Denjirou “DD” Daimon. As Minoru walked in, Searcher glanced at him from under his trademark camouflage baseball cap and gave him a brisk wave. Minoru returned the greeting and sat down next to Olivier. I guess Yumiko really isn’t here today, he thought. At that moment, there was the sound of the door suddenly bursting open behind him, and he turned, only to see a familiar gray pleated skirt fluttering in the doorway. “Sorry I’m late.” Accelerator (Yumiko Azu) bowed her head promptly and sat down in the chair on Minoru’s right, casting a quizzical glance at his frozen expression. “What’re you making that face for?” “I…it’s nothing, really,” Minoru mumbled, shaking his head stiffly. Mercifully, Professor Riri then clapped her hands together quickly, positioning herself near the monitor. “Okay, looks like we’re all here! Everyone, I’m sorry to call you in to headquarters so close to New Year’s Day, but it seems like the Ruby Eyes have no intention of taking the holiday off, either. So, let’s begin with a report on yesterday’s battle, shall we?” “Yeah, sure,” DD responded in his usual bored drawl, his fingers tapping across the smartphone already in his hands. A full-body image of a person promptly appeared on the large monitor next to the Professor. It appeared to be a low-light photograph taken at night and then digitally enhanced; the quality was a bit grainy, but the person’s features and physique were clear enough at least. Above the photo was a caption that read “Identified Ruby Eye Host No. 11: Trancer.” As Minoru recalled, Igniter’s number had been nineteen, so this “Trancer” was a Ruby Eye who had appeared earlier than Igniter—a veteran, so to speak. After waiting a moment for Minoru to get a good first look at the image, DD spoke up. “…Since it was raining yesterday afternoon, Oli and I went out on patrol, as usual. After about fifteen loops around our route, we caught wind of his scent. Since we were in Otemachi and Trancer was in Akasaka, he was real close by.” What? The moment he heard that, Minoru half rose to his feet. “Yesterday…in Akasaka?! Th-then that traffic accident really was…?” “Mm-hmm. It was the work of this man.” The confirmation came from the Professor, who was sitting next to the monitor as if she really was teaching a class. The expression on her small, childish face was extremely grave. “A Ruby Eye who can manipulate water… His code name—the one he’s given himself, anyway—is Trancer. He’s a well-known enemy of ours…a big-shot veteran Ruby Eye who’s been around for quite a while.” As he listened to the Professor’s explanation, Minoru stared at the photo again. Descriptions like “big shot” and “veteran” hardly seemed to suit the subject, who looked to be only around Minoru’s age. The half of his face that was visible looked rather meek, and his straight-fringed hairstyle was more typical of an honors student than a hardened Ruby Eye criminal. This young man really caused that much destruction…? As if sensing Minoru’s skepticism, the Professor continued her explanation. “Trancer froze the entire Aoyama exit ramp into ice, sending ten vehicles or so sliding into the Akasaka intersection, including a trailer truck. A tanker truck that was at the intersection was struck and exploded, a disaster that killed seven people and injured eleven more. Apparently it took a lot of pushing from the National Police Agency Security Bureau’s Public Security Division to get the investigators at the scene to declare it an accident… At any rate, that just shows how dangerous this man is. It’s not just that he has a very powerful ability—he’s also very adept in how he uses it.” “How he uses it…?” “That’s right. All of us Third Eye holders, both Jet and Ruby Eyes alike, came into our powers only just three months ago. I don’t think even we SFD members have fully mastered our abilities yet. And our enemies are the same: Igniter, for instance, was still developing his ability to divide water into hydrogen and oxygen when we fought him not long ago. I might even go so far as to say that that’s the reason we were able to beat him…” The Professor looked up at the monitor and tapped the image on the screen with her finger. “However, Trancer here is different. I believe that at this point in time, he has already completely perfected his abilities… DD, please continue.” She took a step back to allow DD to take the floor. “Sure. So, uh…obviously, by the time we got to Akasaka, Trancer had already fled, but we managed to catch a whiff of him. We pursued him by car, and luckily he went into Aoyama Cemetery. I figured with my rifle and Oli’s sword, it was the perfect situation to go after him, but…” DD trailed off, his eyes shifting toward Olivier’s seat next to Minoru, but Divider simply continued sitting with his arms crossed and head angled downward, not moving a centimeter. After a short sigh, DD cleared his throat and continued. “Oli was wearing the waterproof suit the Professor made him after our last fight with Trancer. The suit worked great, and Oli managed to injure him pretty badly. But…then he busted out a trump card of his own…” This time DD glanced at the Professor and ducked his head like a sheepish student making an excuse to a teacher. “Just like the Professor predicted, we found out that the reason he’d rejected our nickname ‘Freezer’ to go by ‘Trancer’ is that his power isn’t just to turn water into ice—he can also turn water into steam. We were ready for that, but what caught us off guard was that the steam he made was extremely hot, and Oli got hit with it face-first. While I was busy getting Oli out of there, Trancer ran away, and we lost him… Um, that’s the end of my report.” “…Hmm.” The Professor planted her hands on her hips, her pigtails bobbing from side to side. “Well, it is my fault that I didn’t predict that the steam he produced would be so high in temperature. However, DD—No, let me ask you, Oli-V. Why didn’t you report to me at any point from the time you detected Trancer in Akasaka to the point where you lost him in Aoyama Cemetery?” The Professor stared at him piercingly, but the tall swordsman was silent for a long moment. Finally, he stood up slowly and bowed low as he answered, “I’m sorry. I decided that DD and I could handle it on our own.” “Well, next time report it anyway and just include that assessment, then,” the Professor snapped. Though she looked to be only a little girl of around ten years old, the withering glare her dark brown eyes emitted was more intimidating than that of any teacher at Minoru’s school. “Oli-V, you didn’t really decide that you and DD would be able to handle the situation; you just wanted to take care of it yourself. And you didn’t report to headquarters because you didn’t want anyone to get in your way… Am I right?” Olivier stood still without a word, and the young commander turned her gaze away from him, softening her words slightly as she continued. “The Industrial Safety and Health Department, Specialized Forces Division… We may have an elaborate name, but all we really are is a reserve force chosen by the government to deal with situations related to Third Eye phenomena. I still don’t know all the details about the 3E Incident Countermeasure Committee, but it seems that they’re currently divided between two options: continuing to keep the Third Eyes secret until we fully understand them or releasing the information to the public and passing related bills for the complete neutralization of all Third Eyes. If they were to choose the latter, we would all most likely be forced to undertake compulsory surgery to remove our Third Eyes.” Minoru’s breath caught involuntarily. The Professor glanced at him, a cynical smile forming on her tiny lips. “The only reason our department is able to act relatively free of the 3E Committee’s interference in the first place is that there are bureaucrats and big politicians in the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare who think they can use the SFD as a tool in some political conflict. The Self-Defense Forces’ Special Task Squad, who worked with Mikkun and Yukko the other day, are the same way, but we never know if our budget or authority might be taken away without warning for any number of reasons. That’s why, at least among our own members, I think it’s of vital importance that we maintain a relationship of mutual trust. That’s why, if anything, I’m more upset that you didn’t report to HQ than I am about Trancer getting away, Oli-V.” The Professor fell silent, and DD stepped in, speaking with another sigh. “She’s saying to quit being so damn standoffish, Oli. C’mon, don’t you think you could at least tell us by now why you’re so obsessed with catching Trancer?” There was another long silence, broken only by the distant sound of cars passing on Meiji Street some ways away. Finally, there was a louder clatter as Olivier placed his hands on the back of his chair and bowed his head deeply. “…I’m sorry,” Divider said in a subdued voice, without lifting his head. “I still can’t tell you. It’s as important to me as my SFD duties… No, it’s even as important as stopping the Ruby Eyes from killing people. But I’ll at least stop trying to take him down by myself. ’Cause…it seems like I’m not strong enough to beat him on my own yet.” Minoru’s eyes widened. Hearing those words from Olivier Saitou, who was always overflowing with confidence in his ability to cut through anything, was something of a shock. Straightening up and catching Minoru’s gaze, Olivier shot him a bitter smile and said something that shocked Minoru even more. “C’mere, Mikkun. Hit me.” “Um…what…?!” “I punched you out the other day because I said you didn’t have enough resolve, right? ’Cause you didn’t feel anything toward the Ruby Eyes’ victims and stuff.” Instinctively, Minoru touched his left cheek, then quickly lowered his hand. “I mean…you were right to hit me for that, so…” “But I’m the same way. Trancer is even more dangerous than Igniter, but I just charged in after him for my own reasons and ended up letting him get away. If he kills somebody else now, it’s gonna be on me. I had no right to say anything to you when I’m just as bad, so…hit me.” Minoru swallowed. Averting his eyes from Olivier’s intense gaze, he shook his head again. “I can’t. I…I can’t just hit somebody.” I’m afraid that the feeling of it would never leave my hand, the same way that punch won’t leave my left cheek. “…Gotcha. It’s cool, I didn’t mean to make things weird.” Olivier turned back toward the Professor and bowed again. “I’m really, really sorry. I’ll be more careful from now on.” “All right.” The commander’s answer was short. Her face said that she was resigned to the fact that there was nothing else she could say about the situation. “Well then, that concludes our discussion of yesterday’s incident. I’m sure Trancer will show up again on another rainy day. We’ll utilize the data we gained from this encounter to its fullest so that he won’t get away next time.” The meeting moved on to topics like the SFD budget and countermeasures against the mass media, so Minoru was only half listening as he reflected on Olivier’s words. Something that’s as important to him as his SFD duties. In other words, there was some circumstance that was equally significant to him as his mission to stop the Ruby Eyes from murdering people. In all honesty, the weight of this mission still didn’t feel entirely real to Minoru. He was here now only because, in exchange, Chief Himi had agreed to erase all memories of him from other people’s minds once the Third Eye calamity was resolved. Is there anything so important to me that I would throw away that deal? Minoru wondered for a moment. It would probably have to be something like Norie’s life, he thought. Did that mean that Olivier’s secret situation was something along those lines? Was there someone so important to him that, for whatever reason, he had to fight Trancer alone for that person? The only scenario he could come up with to fit that hypothesis would have to be revenge. That had been the case for Yumiko, who had been bent on defeating Igniter after her previous partner, Sanae Ikoma, was left in a coma in room 404 downstairs after a battle with the Ruby Eye. Stopping at that conjecture for now, Minoru glanced over at Olivier again. However, his downturned expression didn’t reveal any trace of emotion. “Well, that brings our last meeting for the year to an end. Group dismissed.” No sooner had the Professor finished her brief statement than Olivier stood up and strode quickly toward the elevator, DD following close behind him. Those two sure are close, Minoru thought vaguely, but he was startled back to reality when the Professor called his name. “Mikkun, Yukko, I hate to ask, but do you think we could spend another hour or two on that thing from the other day? I have a few more ideas I’d like to try.” “Certainly. I brought my motorcycle helmet with me today for that exact reason.” The Professor smiled wryly. “Don’t you think that’ll just increase the sense of distance between you and Mikkun?” “Well, I don’t want to skin my nose again, that’s for sure!” As he watched the pair’s spirited exchange, Minoru searched frantically for a way to explain what had happened. Finally, he raised his right hand nervously. “So…um…is…is Komura going to be here at all today?” “Hmm? Komura? Do you mean the older brother or the younger sister?” “Ah, um…the s-sister.” “Oh, Hinako? She’s probably in her room. She usually just watches the meetings via relay broadcasting.” “U-um, Hinako…? I was talking about, er, Ms. Suu Komura…” At this, the Professor laughed and shrugged. “Oh, sorry, that’s just the nickname I call her. The kanji for her given name is written like ‘hina,’ so I call her Hinako… Wait…come to think of it, Mikkun, have you been introduced to her?” “No, um… Actually, two days ago, I had a chance to greet her while she was watching my house…” At this, Yumiko, who had been listening in silence until now, spoke up in a surprised voice. “What? I’m sure she was using her invisibility, though, right? And you still noticed her?” “Ah, no, I had no idea she was there. I just thought there was an empty car there, so I went to walk around it, and then she called out to me from inside the car…” “What?!” both Yumiko and the Professor cried out in unison. Then, while the Professor crossed her hands over her lab coat and blinked in undisguised amazement, Yumiko hastily masked her surprise with a tiny frown. “W…well, that’s a surprise. I can’t imagine Refractor giving away her presence to someone she’d just met,” Yumiko added quickly. Mentally scrambling for a way to smoothly explain what had happened from that point to the experiment and Suu’s departure, Minoru continued cautiously: “So…then, um, well. I didn’t know that she’d been watching over my house while I was out on missions, and, ah, one thing led to another, and so I ended up inviting her in for dinner…?” “Ah, well, I’m sure that didn’t go well.” Professor Riri nodded sagely, a rueful smile on her small face. “I’m sure it got awkward there, right? I’m sorry. That’s why I’ve been putting off introducing you to her. But see, Hinako has her reasons for—” “Oh, ah, th-that’s not it, exactly… She, um, she did come in and have dinner with my sister and me, so…” “HUH?!” Once again, the two voices rang out at the same time, albeit with slightly different tones. “Wait a second, Utsugi. If she ate dinner at your house…does that mean she deactivated her ability…?” When Minoru nodded affirmation to Yumiko’s dumbfounded question, both of the girls lapsed into stunned silence for several long moments. Finally, the Professor spoke up, her voice a bit low. “But Mikkun…besides Hinako’s ability, refraction, she has…other circumstances that predate her Third Eye…” Uncertain whether it was all right to talk about it, Minoru chose his words carefully. “You mean…about sight lines, right?” “What? Hinako told you that much…?” “Yes…” The surprise on their faces continued to escalate. At this rate, Minoru realized he would never get through his explanation, so he took a deep breath and finished the report in one go. “So then, Komura wanted to see if her refraction power and my isolation power could be related and said she thought maybe I’d be able to bring someone into my shell if I couldn’t see them… So, uh, we ended up testing it out in my room. And when we did that, um, I don’t know why exactly, but it may have somehow succeeded on the first try? And then Komura recorded a sound that she heard inside my shell, and she said she’d bring it in for you to investigate, Professor, so she told me I should explain what happened. So, um…there you have it.” He had gotten increasingly flustered and incoherent by the end, but Minoru had somehow managed to say everything he needed to, so he took in a long, deep breath as he wiped the sweat from his brow with the cuff of his shirt. The ensuing silence was at least five seconds long. Finally, the Professor raised her right hand slowly, extended her index finger, and pushed it down repeatedly as if buzzing in on an imaginary button. “W…wait a minute. Let me make sure I’ve got this right first. Mikkun, you said it ‘succeeded,’ right? Does that mean you were able to bring Hinako—Refractor—into your protective shell? And on the first try, too?” “Err…” Suddenly, Minoru hesitated, getting the feeling that confirming this would set a series of events into motion that he wasn’t at all sure would be favorable. But it was too late to take it back now. Slowly, reluctantly, he nodded. “…Yes, I…I guess you could put it that way…” Another long silence settled over the western side of the spacious fifth-floor room. Finally, the Professor dropped her hand back to her side and groaned. “Geez…I can’t believe it! Did it succeed because you couldn’t see Hinako, or was there some other factor? We’ll have to run lots of experiments…” Still mumbling to herself, she started to pace back and forth in front of the monitor. Looking away, Minoru nervously turned his gaze toward Yumiko, who was still sitting in a folding chair with her legs crossed. Still in her black school blazer despite the fact that winter vacation was well under way, Yumiko maintained the same expression of surprise for a while, even when Minoru’s eyes met hers. Then, blinking suddenly as if she’d just realized something, she turned to face straight ahead. From this angle, her expression almost looked crestfallen. She suddenly squeezed her eyes shut as if something had frightened her. Her hands, clenched in her lap, trembled slightly. However, her visible reaction told Minoru next to nothing about what she was actually thinking. Within seconds, she had straightened up, opened her eyes, and turned toward him with a smile. “Well, that’s a relief! I guess I won’t be scraping up my nose today after all!” she said lightly, briskly clapping her hands and turning to the Professor. “That being the case, I suppose I can tap out and let Komura take over as your lab rat, yes?” “Hmm? Ah, right, yes…” “Well, then! I’ll be heading back to my room. I’m still a high school student, after all, so I ought to study once in a while! Great work today, everyone,” Yumiko said smoothly, and she stood up and walked toward the elevator without another glance at Minoru. There was the tap of footsteps, and the elevator doors creaked open, then shut. After a few moments, the Professor let out a long sigh. Minoru, having blankly watched Yumiko leave without thinking to say good-bye, snapped out of his daze and turned around. Meeting his eyes, the elementary school–aged commander smiled somewhat bitterly. “See, this is why I’m not qualified to be a leader.” “H…huh?” “I can recite the digits of pi for eternity, but when it comes to the human heart, I can’t predict what they’re going to do even if it’s just one second into the future. I guess no amount of research and secondhand information can replace life experience…” “Um…what do you…?” Minoru tilted his head. In response, the Professor hoisted herself onto the edge of her desk and sat there, still smiling wanly, as she asked him an unusual question. “Hey, Mikkun, have you ever been in love?” At first, Minoru thought she was joking, and he opened his mouth to make some light joke in response, but he closed it when he realized he was meant to answer seriously. Waiting a moment, he slowly shook his head from side to side. “No…I don’t think so.” He had adored his late sister, Wakaba, and deeply admired his stepsister, Norie, but of course, that wasn’t romantic love. There was a girl from the Yoshiki High School track and field club, Tomomi Minowa, who he went on morning jogs with from time to time, but if he was asked whether he was in love with her, he couldn’t see himself saying anything other than no. “I see.” The Professor inclined her head slightly at Minoru’s answer. “Neither have I. More accurately, I do seem to remember having some interest in a boy in my class up until three months ago, but once I received a Third Eye and my speculation powers, I forfeited those feelings.” “Wh…why is that? It’s not as though your feelings for someone caused the trauma that fuels your Third Eye’s power, right…?” “Yes, that’s true. But I got carried away with the thrill of having an intellect that no ten-year-old should have by rights. I wanted to come up with the answers for everything, even things I didn’t need— No, that I shouldn’t have thought about. The result is that I’ve lost the chance to find within myself any real answers about the hearts of others…” Minoru could only half follow the meaning of the Professor’s muttered words. Looking at the pigtailed girl as she sat on the edge of her desk, still wearing a white lab coat over her jeans and sweater, he opened his mouth slowly. “Um…in other words, is that because you learned the ‘meaning of life,’ like you mentioned before…? Since you managed to come up with the answer to such a hard question, now it’s pointless to try to understand how something like love works, or…?” “I guess. Well, it’s not so much that it’s pointless as that I just can’t bring myself to want to know the answer, I think. Or…I want to know, but my interest is only scientific, a matter of data. I figured I could at least hear about your experiences, but I guess I’m out of luck, huh, Mikkun?” She grinned, and Minoru ducked his head apologetically. “I’m sorry I couldn’t be more useful. But…what made you bring that up all of a sudden?” “Well, I’m trying to figure out which I should prioritize—learning more about your ability or the mental health of the SFD’s members.” “S-sorry? Mental health…?” “Yeah. But I already know the answer. Mikkun, I’m changing your mission for the evening. We’re going to put off the experiments for now. Instead, I need you to go to Yukko’s room on the fourth floor and buzz in on the intercom.” Thrown off by the unexpected order, Minoru automatically repeated it. “B-buzz in…? Should I just come back here once I’ve done that?” “Uh, no. What is this, ding-dong-dash? No, once you press it… Well, good luck, anyway. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.” 3 Following the Professor’s vague instructions, Minoru took the elevator down one story to the residential floor. Walking eastward down the old-fashioned outside corridor, Minoru passed by the room that would be given to him if he decided to move here temporarily, room 403, and stopped in front of room 404, where Yumiko and her currently comatose partner, Shooter (Sanae Ikoma), lived. Certainly, Yumiko’s response when she had left the fifth floor a little while ago had been out of character for her. In fact, Minoru didn’t think he’d ever seen such a distinct smile on her face. But what had caused the issue—and why the Professor had sent him here—was utterly unclear to him. Of course, he couldn’t imagine Yumiko was satisfied with the fact that after their experiment with his protective shell had failed so many times, it succeeded on the first attempt as soon as he tried it with Suu. But since the reason it had worked was probably Suu’s invisibility, he didn’t see any point in getting hung up on it. So what does the Professor want me to talk to Yumiko about? Still at a loss, Minoru timidly pushed the buzzer on her door. Ding-dong. The old-fashioned chime rang out loudly, but it wasn’t until at least ten seconds after the sound had died away that a curt voice emitted from the speaker. “Yes?” “Ah, um, it’s Utsugi…” “…What is it?” “Well, I…um…,” Minoru stammered, unable to come up with a reason for his visit right away. The only instructions the Professor had given him beyond this point were “good luck.” And Minoru wasn’t feeling very lucky, since he still hadn’t figured out why he was here at room 404. As he stood hesitating, he heard a small sigh from the speaker, and the door unlocked with a click. Hanging back in the dim light behind the slightly opened door, Yumiko was still in her uniform. “Well? What do you want?” Wilting under her glare, Minoru opened and shut his mouth a few times before settling on explaining the situation honestly. “Um, well…the Professor sent me here to talk to you.” Inhaling deeply, Accelerator let out a rapid stream of words that was true to her code name. “I see. Well, you’ve already accomplished that, then, haven’t you? Go back to the Professor and tell her for me that I said there isn’t a problem. See you later.” As soon as she finished her statement, Yumiko moved to close the door. Panicking, Minoru automatically took a half step back. When he did, the light that he’d been blocking from the north side of the hallway flooded into the darkness of the half-closed doorway. And that was when he noticed. Yumiko’s eyelids were red and puffy, and there were traces of still-wet tears on her cheeks. Without thinking, Minoru reached out and grabbed the edge of the door that she was trying to shut, firmly holding it open. At the same time, Yumiko, apparently realizing what he’d seen, quickly turned her face away, covering her eyes with her free hand. Her voice cracked sharply in the dry winter air. “What are you doing? I said I’m fine! Just go back upstairs!” “B-but…” “I said go away! Leave me alone!” she shouted, but her voice was trembling. Apparently giving up, she let go of the doorknob and gave a loud sniffle, rubbing her eyes furiously. “…I’m sure you’re getting the wrong idea about this,” she said finally. “Huh…?” “And I’d rather not let you continue to misunderstand.” “Huh?” “Come in, then. I’ll give you the briefest explanation possible.” This time when he entered, she ushered him into a room partway down the hall. The room was about thirty square meters, with a writing desk, a single bed, and a large beanbag cushion. It appeared that this was Yumiko’s room, though the decor was exceedingly plain. With a small dresser, plain horizon-blue curtains, and not a single poster or photo to be found on the walls, the room gave little evidence that it was home to a teenage girl. The one exception was a large, possibly deerlike stuffed animal lying on the bed, but its goofy face and black nose gave Minoru no clues as to what it was supposed to be. “Is that stuffed animal a…reindeer…?” Standing by the bed, unsure of what to do next, Minoru ventured what seemed like a safe question. Yumiko glanced over, her eyes staying on the mysterious creature as she answered. “It’s a pronghorn. Also known as a pronghorn antelope or a prong buck.” “Pronghorn… Where does it live?” “Midwestern America. It’s the fastest herbivore alive,” Yumiko explained shortly, then pointed at the beanbag cushion on the floor. “Sit there.” As Minoru gingerly settled into the round cushion, Yumiko sat on the bed and pulled the stuffed pronghorn over to her, hugging it on her lap. She remained silent for a while and Minoru stole an upward glance at her. Just as he’d thought, her eyes really were red. What’s more, her voice seemed hoarser than it had been back on the fifth floor. Does she have a cold? Or maybe an unseasonable case of hay fever? Minoru came up with various possibilities, trying to be optimistic. Shooting him a glare, Yumiko cut right to the heart of the matter. “All right, I’ll admit it. I was just putting on an act when I left the fifth floor. Once I got down here, I ran straight to my room and cried like a baby.” “L…like a baby?” “That’s right. And I whacked this stuffed animal around while I was at it, too.” “You…wh-whacked it?” Try as he might, Minoru just couldn’t picture the self-assured Yumiko Azu bawling her eyes out and venting her anger on a stuffed animal. And he still didn’t quite understand the reason… “But that’s where you’ve got the wrong idea!” Yumiko proclaimed abruptly. “P-pardon?” “I know what you’re thinking. You think I was crying because I felt like Komura stole you away from me, right?” “Huh?! Uh, no, I didn’t—” “Well, you’re wrong!!” Yumiko slammed a fist into the pronghorn’s stomach, then pointed at Minoru as if targeting the tip of his nose. “The reason I was crying is that I was frustrated with my own failure. It had nothing to do with you whatsoever, that much is for sure.” “Failure…? But it was my fault the experiment kept failing the other day, not yours…” “That’s true. It was absolutely your fault.” Yumiko rested her chin on the stuffed animal’s head. “But the reason I couldn’t help feeling disappointed and angry with myself wasn’t about the experiment. It was just that I always end up comparing myself to her. I’m sure I’ve never even crossed her mind, yet here I am, making comparisons, coming up short, and getting depressed all of my own accord… Really, I feel like such a fool.”
Chapter 28
44 min read