Chapter 36

2 The fastest route from Minoru’s house in Saitama’s Sakura district to SFD Headquarters in the Toyama 3-chome area of Shinjuku was to take the JR Saikyou line from the nearby Yonohonmachi Station to Ikebukuro, then transfer to the Tokyo Metro Fukutoshin line and get off at Nishiwaseda. It took about an hour and a half from door-to-door. If Yumiko came to pick him up on her beloved Mach 0.7 bike, that time dropped to as little as a half hour, but he could hardly ask her to do that for reasons outside of their SFD duties. Especially when that reason was to visit Suu Komura. That’s why when Minoru left home at 10:30 a.m., he didn’t reach SFD Headquarters in Toyama Park until noon exactly. Taking the antique elevator to the fifth floor and trying to ignore the slightly unnerving sound it made, Minoru walked through the door as it opened. “Excuse me.” He automatically uttered the phrase that had become his accustomed greeting and entered the large room that made up the entire fifth floor. But as soon as he’d taken a few steps inside, a strange feeling of discomfort stopped him in his tracks. He realized the reason for this almost immediately. It was quiet. There was no trace of the usual background noise of Olivier Saito’s games being played on the big-screen TV in the center of the room, the sounds of DD cooking up some creative cuisine in the kitchen, or even the usual irritated greeting from Yumiko Azu that she would give along with a short wave from her sprawled-out position on the couch. The watery white sunlight of winter filtered into a room that was wrapped in complete silence. …But the Professor should be here, at least… Swapping his sneakers for slippers, Minoru placed his messenger bag on the sofa that Yumiko normally occupied before heading for the west side of the enormous room, instinctively keeping his footsteps quiet. The SFD’s field supervisor, known as “the Speculator,” Professor Riri Isa had a dedicated lab in one corner of the room, separated by a white partition. Walking around the dividing screen, Minoru gazed around at the space full of countless shelves, experiment tables, and mysterious equipment, but this place appeared to be empty, too… …No, it wasn’t. In the back of the lab, poking out from the side of a mesh chair facing the window, there was a single braid tied off with a red ribbon. Tiptoeing closer, Minoru peered into the chair only to find a cherubic young girl fast asleep in the sunshine. With her braided hair, printed hoodie, and culotte skirt, she was the spitting image of an elementary school student, but the white lab coat she wore and the wireless keyboard in her lap disrupted that childlike image. Her complexion didn’t look terribly healthy, either. She’d probably been up all night working on something. It was almost the appointed time now, but he didn’t want to wake a young child from her nap, so he tried to back away quietly. However, before he’d gone even one meter, the girl seemed to faintly detect his presence, and her eyes snapped open. After blinking a few times, her large brown eyes focused on Minoru. A faint smile appeared on her lips, then curved down into a disapproving expression. “…Mikkun, it isn’t very proper to sneak a look at a lady’s sleeping face.” Her rebuke sounded like it was coming from someone much older, bringing Minoru to automatically duck his head in a flustered apology. “S-sorry, Professor… I mean, no, that’s not what I was doing! You seemed tired, so I thought I’d just wait over there…” “Hmm… Ah, is it that late already? I suppose I should be the one to apologize, then… The sunlight felt so good that I just dozed right off.” Professor Riri looked out the window as she spoke, so Minoru followed her gaze. The window of the housing complex’s fifth floor provided a clear view over the tall trees of Toyama Park. Since it was the middle of winter, most of the trees were bare, but the sight of the pale sun over the frigid atmosphere was so tranquil that it could certainly lull any onlooker to sleep. “…On a day like this, it’d be great to sit in a kotatsu eating oranges and such…” Minoru mumbled this without thinking, and the Professor crossed her arms and made a thoughtful “hmm.” “Kotatsu… A low, heated table, eh? True enough, SFD Headquarters has no such equipment set up at present…” Glancing at the clock on the wall, she nodded with a serious expression. “The hospital appointment is at two o’clock. Since it’s only you and I leaving here, I thought we could have a short meeting until then, but…before that, Mikkun, could you help me for a moment?” “Y-yes, of course, but…?” “What? It’s nothing major. Just a little bit of heavy lifting… I believe it should be in Mr. Lindenberger’s room.” There’s that mysterious German name again…at least, I think it’s German. I don’t actually know for sure. It had come up periodically throughout Minoru’s time with the SFD, so it seemed to be the name of another member, but Minoru had yet to meet him. As Minoru dealt with a sudden wave of anxiety, the Professor spun her chair around halfway to face the PC monitor on the desk and flicked the mouse around for a moment. Then she looked up and nodded again. “According to the equipment list, it is indeed still stored in the walk-in closet in room 303. Sorry, but would you mind getting it for me? I’ll text the room’s occupant to let him know you’re coming.” “…Just to be clear, what am I picking up exactly?” The elementary school–aged commander gave Minoru a satisfied grin. “A kotatsu set, of course.” Crossing back through the still-empty room, Minoru took the elevator to the third floor, entering the shared corridor there. He’d been to the fourth floor before, where Yumiko and her former partner Sanae Ikoma lived, but this was his first time setting foot on the third. Like the fourth floor, the four rooms of this area were presumably the private rooms of other SFD members, but Minoru didn’t know who lived where. For the time being, he proceeded to the door of room 303 as instructed by the Professor. Yumiko’s front door had a handwritten nameplate that read “Azu Ikoma,” but this room’s nameplate was still blank. Apparently, though, this was where the SFD member named Lindenberger lived. Mentally picturing an older German gentleman with a mustache, Minoru timidly pressed the doorbell. An old-fashioned electronic ding-dong sound echoed inside the room. Five seconds…ten seconds…twenty seconds passed, and still no response. Minoru pressed the button again, but the result was the same. “……Hmm…” After hesitating for a short while, Minoru placed his hand on the doorknob. He expected to find the door locked and return to the fifth floor, but instead the old-fashioned rotary knob turned without resistance, and the door cracked open. Double-checking that this was indeed room 303, Minoru pulled the door open. Immediately, he was greeted by a strong whiff of dust, causing him to grimace instinctively. Covering his nose and mouth with his right hand, Minoru peered around inside, but like the hallway, the living room was almost completely dark. Apparently, the curtains and even the storm shutters were closed. “Um… Hello?” Minoru poked his head in through the doorway, but there was still no response. Was the tenant sleeping or just not at home? Either way, he couldn’t just barge in uninvited. Thinking to call the Professor to seek her directions, Minoru started taking his smartphone out of his pocket. But before he completed this action, he noticed a tiny glint of light in the corner of his eye. “……?” Furrowing his eyebrows, Minoru squinted and found that the source of the light was a thin thread strung up between the hallway and the floor. It was a spiderweb. The light from the hallway was reflecting off it. Since it was midwinter now, the spider that made the web was no longer there, and the web itself was falling apart. In other words, it was a considerably old web, and since it was stretched across the entryway, nobody had come into or out of this room for several months. “…What, so it’s just a vacant room…?” Mumbling to himself, Minoru put his phone back in the inner pocket of his mountain parka. The Professor must have gotten the room number wrong. In which case, there was a good chance that the table he was here to pick up wasn’t in this room, but he wouldn’t know unless he took a look. Searching around the entrance again, he noticed that there wasn’t a single pair of shoes on the tiled floor. Thinking that he should have noticed something was off sooner, he opened the shoe cupboard. It was mostly empty, aside from two pairs of cheap vinyl slippers and a single shoehorn. First, he took out the shoehorn and used it to remove the spiderweb blocking the entrance. Then, he took out one of the dusty pairs of slippers into the hallway, changing out of his sneakers. “…Okay, I’m coming in.” Minoru announced his intent in a small voice, despite the fact that the room was clearly vacant, before stepping into the inner corridor. Locating a light switch by feeling around, he flipped it on, and an LED light bulb lit up faintly. The structure of the room was probably the same as Yumiko’s, so the walk-in closet the Professor mentioned was probably through the closed door on the right of the corridor. In Yumiko’s place, she had informed him that he would be thrown off the balcony if he opened hers. With that thought in mind, he carefully opened the door in question to find a Western-style room about thirty meters around. He tried turning on the lights as before, but the metal rosettes installed on the ceiling were bare, so nothing happened when he flipped the switch. If he opened the windows and storm shutters, there would probably be plenty of sunlight; but that seemed like a hassle, so instead he took out his smartphone again and put it in flashlight mode. This smartphone, which the SFD had provided him with, was apparently another piece of specially made equipment, so the battery wouldn’t decrease much even with heavy use. Illuminated by Minoru’s phone light, the room was as empty as expected. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture, but he saw his objective on the southern wall—a closet with a folding door. Breathing a sigh of relief as he approached, he pulled it open with one hand. The walk-in closet was apparently being used as a storeroom, as it was full of stacks of cardboard boxes instead of clothes. Most of them were nonperishable foods, like mineral water, canned goods, and cupped ramen, but what he was looking for was in the far right corner: a large cardboard box with the word kotatsu on the side. Minoru moved to drag it out, but then something else caught his eye. Right next to the kotatsu was a cardboard box marked with an energy bar logo, the seal open and the lid slightly ajar. Peeking inside, he saw that the contents of the twenty-four cases inside were about halfway gone. Most likely, someone knew these goods were here and snuck away energy bars on the sly. It could be Olivier, Yumiko, or maybe even the Professor herself… So maybe I should help myself to a box, too? Minoru thought for an instant, but of course he did nothing of the kind, pulling out only the kotatsu box he originally came for. Closing the door of the closet and putting his smartphone away, Minoru lifted the box with both hands. It was surprisingly heavy but certainly nothing his Third Eye–strengthened body couldn’t handle. Minoru thought about the mystical substance of adenosine nonaphosphate being used up in the muscle cells of his arms as he carried the box into the hallway, then went back inside to put away the slippers and shoehorn and turn off the LED bulb. “…Sorry for intruding,” he mumbled as he left, but of course there was no answer. Once he closed the door and lifted the kotatsu box again, Minoru headed to the elevator. The Professor had said she just needed “a bit of heavy lifting,” but Minoru’s task didn’t end there, as he next had to assemble the kotatsu from the box. After installing the four legs on the body, situating it on the rug in front of the TV, covering the bottom with the accompanying blanket, and placing the board on top, Minoru paused to catch his breath. Then he plugged it into the power strip, flipped the switch, made sure the inside glowed red before looking over to the west side of the room. “Um, Professor, the kotatsu’s all put together…” But before he could finish speaking, the girl in the lab coat came rushing out of her booth and dove into the kotatsu with cartoonish zeal. Minoru looked on speechlessly as the Professor’s face shifted from expressionless to ridiculously relaxed in a matter of seconds. “…Mm-hmm, I knew it, nothing beats this. It feels like so long since I’ve remembered that such a wondrous heating device exists in Japan…” “That’s, uh…” …a bit of an overstatement, Minoru wanted to say, but he managed to keep his mouth shut. Professor Riri Isa had made contact with the Third Eye four months ago and gained the speculation ability—or rather, had it planted within her. Since then, she had rarely returned home, opting to shut herself up in SFD Headquarters. Minoru had assumed the “rarely” part until today. Even though she was their commander, she was still a ten-year-old girl in her fourth year of elementary school, so he figured she probably went home on the weekends. However, since she was here in spite of the New Year’s three-day holiday, that must have meant she never went home at all. Apparently, Yumiko and Olivier had told their parents that they were staying at a school dormitory. They really did go to school from here, though, and occasionally went home to their families. But the Professor…it seemed bizarre that a ten-year-old girl could stay out for so long without her family members being alarmed. She couldn’t exactly get away with claiming to have transferred to a boarding school. Then what exactly did the SFD—Chief Himi—do…? On the verge of voicing his questions aloud, Minoru instead abandoned that line of thought. Since he was refusing to move into headquarters himself, it didn’t seem right for him to pry into her business. Almost as if she knew what Minoru was thinking, Professor Riri looked up at him and smiled with an innocence befitting her age. “Thanks for going to all that trouble, Mikkun. Don’t just stand there—why don’t you come under here, too? We don’t have any mandarin oranges, though, sorry.” “Ahh… Should I check in the fridge?” “No, I was going through it last night, so I’m unfortunately quite certain about that. And since DD’s back home with his family right now, we don’t have any other food, either.” “Oh, I see…” At first, Minoru thought maybe he should have swiped some energy bars from room 303 after all, but then he finally remembered what was in his own bag. “Oh, that’s right! Please wait a moment.” “Hmm…?” The Professor gave him a dubious look as he retrieved his messenger bag from the nearby sofa and brought it into the kitchen. There, he removed three small containers from the bag, placed the contents onto a few serving dishes, and arranged the dishes on a tray along with two plates and two sets of chopsticks. While he was at it, he brewed enough roasted green tea for two, then hurried back to the heated table. Seeing the dishes lined up on the board, the Professor’s eyes sparkled. “What’s this?! You brought mochi?!” “I did. These ones are soy flour, these are wrapped in seaweed, and these have cheese.” “Ooh… It feels like so long since I’ve remembered that such a wondrous food exists in Japan…” Repeating the same strange phrasing from before, the Professor accepted her plate and chopsticks from Minoru. “We actually received some mochi for the first time in a long while, but my sister and I got sort of excited and ended up making way too much ourselves…” “Hoh-hoh, you getting excited about mochi? Now that I’d like to see… So is it all right if I have a few?” “Of course, please help yourself.” As soon as Minoru gave the go-ahead, the Professor immediately grabbed a cheese mochi with her chopsticks and popped it straight into her mouth. After she munched on it and gulped, her eyes widened with glee. “Yum!” “G-glad you like it. That one has homemade pizza sauce on it, too.” “Ooh, the flavor of the tomato complements it perfectly. Next is the seaweed-wrapped kind… Mm-hmm, now that’s a very traditional flavor. This one’s tasty, too!” “Apparently, the trick is to use good soy sauce and get a little char on it.” As he conveyed the knowledge Norie had shared with him, Minoru helped himself to a piece of mochi as well. He’d just eaten the same thing a few hours ago, but it seemed to taste a little different when enjoyed under a kotatsu, even if it wasn’t at home. Once she’d sampled each of the flavors, the Professor took a long gulp of tea and let out a satisfied sigh. Then, a few seconds later, she said something totally unexpected. “…So it doesn’t seem like you blame me, Mikkun.” “Huh…? B-blame you…?” “Well, yes. For what happened…” She lowered her head, her braids bobbing as she spoke in a quiet voice. “…Back in Minami-Aoyama, when you, Yukko, and Oli-V battled against Liquidizer and Trancer… I didn’t send in a backup unit, even though I knew it might be a difficult fight. I prioritized obtaining information about the Syndicate over your safety. Because of that, now Oli-V’s in the hospital with serious injuries, and since Hinako’s treatment for her severe condition didn’t happen immediately, she’s still in the ICU… Mikkun, you have every right to blame me.” Even after the Professor finished speaking, Minoru kept quiet for a moment. Then he put his chopsticks down on his plate and shook his head gently. “No… I don’t have any such right to blame you, and I don’t want to, either. If anything, I’m sorry for getting so emotional during our communication that day… I’m sure it was hardest on you, since you were commanding us…” Minoru looked down, and this time the Professor was silent for a moment. He heard the sound of cloth rustling, followed by small footsteps. At first, he thought she was leaving, but instead the Professor walked around the kotatsu, sat down beside Minoru’s left, and stuck her skinny legs back under the blanket. “Er, um…” As Minoru sat stiffly, unsure of what to do, he felt a small weight against his side. Professor Riri was leaning against him. Eventually, she spoke in a faint whisper. “…To be honest, I spent all morning preparing myself for you to be angry at me.” “Huh…?” “My speculation ability can’t read people’s minds. All I could do was imagine how angry and disappointed you must be in me… But after the stuff you just said, I have no idea what I’m supposed to do.” So why are you sitting next to me, then? Minoru thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. Instead, he spread out the quilt, which had gotten shoved under the table, and wrapped it around the Professor. “…Eat more mochi, please.” Minoru moved her plate toward her, and the Professor gave a childlike nod and an “uh-huh,” then picked up her chopsticks again. In the end, the Professor ate five mochi, and Minoru ate three; he put the leftovers back into their containers and stowed them in the refrigerator, and then they returned to the lab together. It was now one o’clock in the afternoon. Considering how long it would take to get to the hospital, they only had another twenty minutes or so, but nonetheless the Professor pulled up another mesh chair to her desk and had Minoru sit there. “…I feel bad showing this to you before we go visit Hinako, but I wanted to share this information with you…” With that, the Professor moved the mouse. A video played back on the seventy-plus-centimeter 8K monitor in full screen. A grating engine noise emitted from the speakers. “…What’s this…?” “It’s a video from the body camera of a Special Task Squad member infiltrating the Syndicate base, which we located with the information you got for us on New Year’s.” “……!! The…the STS?” The Professor nodded silently at a breathless Minoru. The official name of the STS was the Japan Self-Defense Forces Ground Staff Office Operational Support Intelligence Department, Special Task Squad. It was practically impossible to figure out what the organization did from its name, which was even longer than the SFD’s, but apparently, it was a unit of Jet Eye holders within the Self-Defense Forces. The video on the monitor showed soldiers dressed all in black, sitting side by side. The lighting was low, so they almost appeared to be nothing but silhouettes, but Minoru could tell they were soldiers from the large automatic rifles each of them carried. Judging by the shaking on-screen and the noise, he thought they were likely inside a helicopter. Gulping as he watched intently, Minoru heard a man’s low voice beneath the engine sound. “Sixty seconds to the target. Prepare for fast rope descent.” The camera moved, capturing a full view of the inside of the helicopter. There seemed to be six soldiers, including the one filming. “A-are all of them Jet Eyes…?” Minoru whispered, but the Professor quickly shook her head. “No, none of them. They’re all ordinary humans…though they are highly trained, elite soldiers.” “Huh? But isn’t the STS a group of Jet Eyes…?” “I’ll explain afterward. For now, just watch closely.” With that, Minoru had no choice but to swallow his questions for now. “Thirty seconds.” When the man spoke again, the soldiers began to move. Standing up from the simple seats, they lined up with three people in front of each of the doors on the left and right of the cabin. Before long, the sound of the engine changed, and the shaking abated a little. “Open the doors. Begin descent.” In response to the commander’s hushed order, the large sliding doors were pulled back at once. Instead of city lights, all that was visible beneath the dark-violet sky was the black surface of the ocean. The time stamp displayed in the lower right corner of the video read “12-31-2019 17:14.” Minoru and the others had fought with Liquidizer and Trancer on the abandoned factory site around four p.m. that day, so this took place a mere hour later. On the screen, the soldiers descended one after another without a lifeline, using only the two ropes hanging from the helicopter’s side doors. The person recording was last to go, grabbing the ropes and jumping without hesitation. Now the scene below the hovering aircraft was finally visible—but instead of water, there were several flat rectangular buildings below. The place appeared to be some kind of reclaimed warehouse district. “Professor… Where is this?” The Professor gave a short reply. “It’s Keihinjima, in Ota Ward.” “Keihinjima…? Wait…” Lately, Minoru had been spending much of his free time looking at a map of Tokyo on his smartphone so that he’d be more familiar with the lay of the land for his work as an SFD member, but it took him a little while to remember this area. If he recalled correctly, it was a small artificial island south of Ooi Pier. Which meant, in other words… “…Isn’t that just north of Haneda Airport?!” What he meant was that he was surprised they were able to fly a helicopter so close, but the Professor seemed to take his words in a different way and nodded with a grimace. “That’s right. The higher-ups were beside themselves when they found out the Syndicate had a base there…especially since airports are such a prime target for terrorist attacks. Instead of the small-scale reconnaissance missions that were planned beforehand, they decided to go with an all-out armed assault.” “…But they still used regular humans instead of Jet Eyes…? If there are Ruby Eyes there, the squad will probably be wiped out in an instant by their abilities…,” Minoru murmured, forgetting that this image was from three days earlier. On the screen, the six soldiers—no, since they were Self-Defense Forces members, maybe they should be called “agents”—descended onto the site of a two-story warehouse and ran directly toward the front door. If there were any Ruby Eyes inside, surely they would notice the sound of the helicopter above, so there probably was no point in trying to hide their presence. At the same time, though, this would have made them easy targets for the Ruby Eyes. If there were any enemies with similar powers to, say, the Igniter, they could swipe oxygen away from the whole group in a moment, and the agents would all collapse before they could do a thing. But all this was nothing more than Minoru’s speculation on events that had already occurred. “Huh…? They’re dressed sort of strangely…” Mumbling to himself, Minoru brought his face closer to the monitor. Unlike the STS members he’d met a few days earlier, Nishikida and Kakinari, these black-clad agents were wearing what looked like formfitting bodysuits instead of combat uniforms. They seemed to have inner armor and power sources built into various places, but the silhouettes were sleek, and instead of the usual helmets of the Self-Defense Forces, they were wearing masks that covered their faces and entire heads. “…Are these people really Self-Defense Forces personnel?” This time, the Professor responded quickly to Minoru’s latest question. “They’re wearing special anti–Third Eye suits, developed by the Defense Equipment Agency…that is, a joint venture between the former Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency and the Itsuki Heavy Industry Co. They’re bulletproof, stab/slash-proof, gas-proof, heat resistant, and shock resistant… Apparently, even a 5.56 mm NATO round fired from three meters away won’t penetrate them. Just about the only thing they can’t ward off is radiation.” “Ah… Okay…” Since he didn’t have a lot of military knowledge, Minoru didn’t really understand the details, but he could tell from the cascading list the Professor had recited that the uniforms were quite impressive. “Incidentally, they currently cost three hundred million yen apiece.” “Th-three hundred…?” Minoru stared aghast at the screen, where one of the agents was cutting the padlock on the sliding doors with a tool. In just a few seconds, the lock fell to the ground, and the agent opened the door by about five centimeters. Then the agent pulled out a thin cable, like the one used for Minoru’s hydration pack, from the collar of the suit and pushed it into the opening. It was not a water supply valve but a camera; after a short while, the agent looked back and nodded. Apparently, the person wearing the body camera was the commander; gesturing back, he instructed the other five members in a calm, even voice. “We’re going in.” The closest agent pulled the door wide open, and the group rushed in, readying their rifles. The commander stepped into the building last and quickly moved his flashlight-equipped rifle all across the room before declaring “clear.” Apparently, the only voice being recorded was that of the person wearing the camera, the commander. The first floor of the warehouse contained countless rows of large steel racks, but most of them were empty, with just a few cardboard boxes loaded onto the ones in the rear. The floor, which was painted green, was faintly coated in dust, giving the impression that nobody had come in or out in some time. “Um, is this really…” …the Syndicate’s base? Minoru stopped short before he finished voicing his question. The size and purpose of the room seemed quite different, but its eerie emptiness did remind Minoru of the interior of the building he and Suu had broken into in Minami-Aoyama. It had the same sense of a temporary residence—a place that wouldn’t be used for long. Just then, the five agents on the screen all pointed the barrels of their rifles at the ceiling. “Apparently, their body heat thermosensors detected something here.” “Thermosensors…? Through the ceiling, you mean?” “I mean, they do cost three hundred million yen… Make sure you don’t miss this next part.” At the Professor’s whisper, Minoru stared intently at the monitor as if trying to bore a hole through it. The stairs to the second floor were in the back of the warehouse. The black-clad soldiers moved swiftly between the steel racks, with movements so smooth and controlled that even a novice like Minoru could tell how practiced they were. In truth, it did seem like a gun was more powerful than almost any Third Eye holder’s abilities. In which case, if those suits were as strong as the Professor said, maybe these six agents armed with assault rifles really could neutralize a Ruby Eye. Since they were gas-proof, that also meant they were completely airtight, presumably equipped with air cylinders, meaning they would’ve been able to withstand something like Igniter’s oxygen deprivation. Of course, if Liquidizer got a hold of them with her ability to liquefy any substance, they would still melt immediately—but even Liquidizer surely couldn’t get close enough to touch them while fending off rifle bullets from every direction. The Syndicate Ruby Eyes lurking on the second floor are probably going to be shot to pieces. With that in mind, Minoru had to struggle to keep his eyes from straying instinctively from the video feed. On the screen, the agents arrived in the back of the warehouse and formed a line to ascend the iron staircase. Despite how heavy the suits and rifles must have been, their footsteps were scarcely audible. Then just as the first in line had gotten about halfway up the long staircase— The three men in the front of the party collapsed at the knee at nearly the exact same time. The brawny men in their high-tech suits went tumbling down the stairs, their dropped rifles following behind. The other three, including the commander, tried to catch them and stop their fall. But at that moment, the commander emitted a low groan. The body camera pointed up at the ceiling, then started spinning around and around. The person wearing it had begun falling down the stairs, too. The commander reached the first floor and rolled to a halt, his remaining comrades close behind. The screen shook violently for a moment, then stopped moving altogether, still facing sideways. Three seconds later, the video ended. Even after the window went black, Minoru kept staring for a while. Then, turning his stiff neck slowly to his right, he looked at the Professor. “…What…? What happened to them…?” “Well, we know this much. All six members of the attack force were killed instantly, at just about the same time.” “Wh-why…? How could that…?” “Why did it happen…? That I can’t answer. But not because it’s classified or anything. Neither I, the STS, nor even the 3E Committee that supervises both our groups have any idea what killed these men.” Minoru stared, dumbfounded, at the Professor, who was fiddling with her braid glumly. Just a few dozen seconds ago, Minoru had been thinking this team could defeat any Ruby Eye—that maybe he and the other SFD members wouldn’t have to fight anymore. But then all of them were killed in an instant, by a still-unknown cause… He couldn’t wrap his head around it. “…B-but since they died, there must be a reason…a cause of death, right?” The Professor nodded, her right hand still clutching her braid. “Well, yes. Of course, a detailed autopsy is being performed even as we speak. However, as soon as communication was lost with all six members, their suit monitors detected that their hearts and breathing had stopped, and the built-in AEDs couldn’t revive them, so the helicopter on standby above…swept the second floor of the warehouse with heavy weapons fire. They were using M2 machine guns, so the rounds went through the floor, and all sorts of steel frames and things fell on top of the six agents. This damaged both the suits and their bodies, making it all the more difficult to identify the cause of death… Do you want me to pull up the video of the machine-gun fire?” “No…” Minoru refused instinctively but then considered that he shouldn’t let any information go to waste and nodded instead. “…Yes, please.” “Okay.” The Professor nodded, letting go of her braid to move the mouse with her right hand. A new window opened, and the small speakers emitted the heavy sound of an engine. This camera seemed to be a large one fixed to the airframe of the helicopter, with a much clearer image compared with the body camera from before. The screen displayed a gray warehouse in the dark of twilight. There were no windows on the second floor, so the inside of the building couldn’t be seen. A powerful searchlight shone on the roof of the warehouse. Then there were continuous bursts of yellow lights from the right side of the screen, and a metallic roaring sound drowned out the engine. More bullets, possibly tracer rounds, flew with a streak of red light one by one, filling the ceiling of the warehouse with holes. In a matter of seconds, the roof collapsed from the center, exposing the interior. The second floor of the warehouse seemed to be divided into several rooms. One room contained stacks of cardboard boxes, another had a line of clerical desks, and one even had a bed, but the machine guns mowed everything down mercilessly. He knew this video had probably been thoroughly scrutinized already, but Minoru searched for signs of people nonetheless. However, he didn’t see anyone running away, much less facing off against the armed helicopter. All four rooms were completely destroyed in less than a minute and finally collapsed along with the floor itself. Then the guns finally went silent, and Minoru started breathing again, only then realizing he had been holding his breath at all. “……That was…” Minoru’s lips trembled as he searched for the words, continuing in a faint voice. “That was basically all-out war, wasn’t it…? Did they really do this in Japan…right in a suburb of Tokyo…?” “They did. But this incident hasn’t been reported on at all, even though it was three days ago. This strategy was clearly a huge departure from the conservative stance favored so far, though the higher-ups say it’s because a Ruby Eye base so close to Haneda Airport was a highly critical situation. It’s possible that there was a change in the 3E Committee or maybe even higher than that…” The Professor’s words were hard for Minoru to follow, since he didn’t even know all the members of his own group, the SFD. Returning his attention to the screen, he saw that the video was still playing back, showing the searchlight trawling over the wreckage of the warehouse. Presumably, they were searching for the corpses of the Ruby Eyes who must have been on the second floor, but the light illuminated nothing but rubble. Before Minoru could ask another question, the Professor spoke up. “After this, they performed a thorough search along with recovering the bodies from the time of the assault, but no Ruby Eyes were found, living or dead. Besides, if a Ruby Eye had died, the exodus phenomenon should’ve occurred…” “……So in other words, the Ruby Eye who killed those six STS members must have survived that sweep somehow and escaped…right?” “And completely unharmed, at that. They didn’t find a single drop of blood, never mind any human remains. If you ask me, a Third Eye holder who can survive a direct hit from 12.7 mm rounds would have to have an ability on par with yours, Mikkun…” “…E-even I’m not so sure I could’ve survived something like that…” “Oh, don’t say that, please. Mikkun, your barrier ability is the star of hope for me and the SFD…or the shell of hope, I guess.” Minoru shrank down automatically in his seat at the strange compliment. Of course, Minoru’s shell had yet to be pierced or broken by any attack. Not Biter’s jaws, which could snap through iron pipes like candy bars; not Igniter’s hydrogen explosions, which had blown apart the roof of an indoor pool; not even Liquidizer’s hand, which could melt steel pillars, could penetrate Minoru’s shell. The SFD wasn’t even sure if his ability had a physical form or not. However, it still wasn’t an all-powerful shield. He knew firsthand that it couldn’t move if he was surrounded by concrete, and Minoru had smashed his right hand in order to escape, while Suu Komura sustained serious wounds in the process. “…So this is the result of the information that Suu put her life on the line to deliver…?” The Professor was quick to respond to Minoru’s absentminded murmur. “The data you two brought back from the safe house in Minami-Aoyama is still being analyzed. That warehouse is just the first hideout that we discovered. A PC was recovered from the rubble of that building, so we’ll undoubtedly gain more information from that, too. Hinako’s actions didn’t go to waste.” The Professor’s voice was strained with suppressed emotion. Minoru chewed his lip as he stared at his cast-wrapped right hand, and the Professor clapped him lightly on the back. “Well, that’s all the information I have for you right now. Let’s go see how Hinako’s doing, shall we?” The Professor moved to stand up, but Minoru put a hand on her right arm. “Um, before we do that…” “Hmm…?” “Could you tell me…the names of the six STS agents who died?” “……” This time, the Professor gazed at Minoru’s face silently. Then she nodded a little and recited them without looking at anything. “All right. The commander was First Lieutenant Naohisa Nakaoka, and the team members were Sergeant Major Saburou Yarai, Sergeant Major Kakeru Tomita, Sergeant First Class Soutarou Omi, Sergeant First Class Yukimasa Nojima, and Sergeant Shinya Maki. They were all from the Ranger Corps or the Special Task Squad.” Repeating the names of the six people in his mind, Minoru closed his eyes. Jet Eyes or not, these were his comrades who were killed in the line of duty, fighting for the common goal of stopping the Ruby Eyes’ murderous actions. He could never forget that sacrifice. “…Thank you.” Minoru lowered his head. Professor Riri Isa reached for his back again, but this time instead of hitting it, she patted him gently.