Chapter 40

“Well, yes, some did. Six people, to be precise.” “What…!” “But that was on their side, not ours.” “……!!” Mikawa sat up in shock, more alarmed by this news than he expected. “Six…Jet Eyes? Wouldn’t that mean all of them…?” His constant rival Divider, the stun gun–wielding Accelerator, the boy in that protective force field…all of them were dead? Mikawa was shocked for a few seconds, then thought again. “…No, that can’t be. All of them were in a sorry state after our fight on New Year’s Eve. I can’t imagine they would participate in another mission just a few hours later…” “Yes, I agree. I thought that was strange, too, so I pressed for more information, and now we finally have it. It seems that the black agents who died at Keihinjima belonged to a different group, not the usual SFD lot.” “A different group… Does that mean there’s a new team of Jet Eyes unrelated to Divider and the others…?” “That’s right. And they belonged to the Self-Defense Forces, at that… It certainly explains why an attack helicopter would show up.” “No way…” The strange sense of relief that had bubbled up when he learned that Divider and the others were alive disappeared in an instant. “The Self-Defense Forces…? So these were soldiers with Third Eye abilities…?” “We still don’t know for sure whether all six were actually Jet Eyes. But they were certainly armed to the teeth. It seems they were even outfitted with newly developed combat suits.” “…Sounds like they mean business.” “Well, the number of people that Syndicate Ruby Eyes have killed in the Kanto region is easily over a hundred as of last month. And if you count the prey of independent Ruby Eyes like Biter, that’s nearly two hundred people. Clearly, that’s enough to motivate the government a smidge.” “…You don’t think that ‘smidge’ is enough to wipe out the entire Syndicate, do you?” “I doubt that, no?” With that casual remark, Liquidizer reached for the tin can on the table. Brushing the thick sauce onto the apparently finished okonomiyaki, she turned back toward Mikawa. “Mayonnaise?” she asked. “Erm…yes, please.” “D’accord.” Liquidizer drew zigzag lines of the thick, white mayonnaise across the top of the okonomiyaki, then sprinkled bonito flakes and seaweed over them. “Go on, then.” As soon as the scent of the sauce sizzling on the hot plate reached Mikawa’s nose, he realized just how hungry he was. In the past, he’d been a rather light eater, but that wouldn’t be enough to compensate for the high-energy consumption of his current Third Eye–enhanced body. Though he was still concerned about their conversation, he started by cutting off a large slice of the beef and green onion okonomiyaki with the spatula and moving it to his plate, then used chopsticks to bring a piece to his mouth. This restaurant was only a chain in a shopping mall, but there was a certain sense of stability to that, too. The okonomiyaki, his first in longer than he could remember, was so delicious that he polished off his first slice in no time at all. “…It really is fluffy. I had no idea that there was such an important trick to mixing the batter.” “Right? And the cooking is important, too. The chance to eat okonomiyaki I’ve cooked is an awfully rare commodity, you know.” In profile, Liquidizer’s proud expression made her look as if she’d aged backward from somewhere in her mid-twenties to the same age as Mikawa. He blinked a few times. In the back of his mind, he remembered her appearance when they’d met up at the factory in Minami-Aoyama: a school uniform, dark glasses, and braided hair. At the time, he’d asked her whether that was a disguise or her real appearance, but she simply dodged the question. He wondered whether he should ask again, but she didn’t give him a chance. “The problem is, we have no idea who in our group killed the six members of the SDF’s little SWAT team.” Mikawa swallowed this new information along with the okonomiyaki. “…We don’t know…?” “That’s right. The hideout in Keihinjima was intended for an attack on the government officials’ personal aircraft, but that was planned for much, much later…near the end of our plan to wipe out humanity. So there were no members regularly stationed at that warehouse—it should have been unmanned on the day of the attack.” The plans she referred to certainly caught Mikawa’s attention, but for now he decided to keep that in the back of his mind and carry on the current conversation. “…But since they were at a Syndicate hideout, it must have been a member, right? And killing six of those super-soldiers would’ve been a pretty tall order. Why wouldn’t they just come forward?” “I know I would. You’d probably get a pretty hefty bonus, for one thing… But even after three days, no one has taken responsibility. In fact, the executives have been asking members face-to-face if they did it, and so far, everyone has denied it.” As she spoke, Liquidizer somehow finished off a quarter of the oyster okonomiyaki with both speed and elegance, then cut off another slice and put it on Mikawa’s plate. “Let me try yours, too.” “S-sure.” Mikawa cut off a large slice of the beef and onion, moving it to his former master’s plate. Her chopsticks moved in the blink of an eye, making short work of the piece on her plate. “Hmm…they’d be passing ingredients for stew, I suppose. Certainly, not on the level of the suji modanyaki in Marunouchi.” “Wh-what on earth is that?” “Okonomiyaki topped with yakisoba and egg. It’s fluffalicious.” “Wh…what?” “I’ll take you there next time… Anyway, that brings us to the main topic of the day.” Finishing her cup of oolong tea, Liquidizer looked into Mikawa’s face from just centimeters away. “Was it you at the Keihinjima hideout, boy?” “Huh?!” Mikawa shouted without thinking, then looked around in a panic. Fortunately, neither the staff nor the customers seemed to be paying them any mind. Dropping his volume, he continued. “O-of course not. I mean, weren’t you carrying me at the time because of my injuries? I wasn’t even conscious.” “Fair enough… Do you know which member might’ve been there, then?” This must be the main question. Taking a deep breath, Mikawa shook his head emphatically. “I don’t know. You can even have that Peeping Tom Empathizer scan my memories if you want.” Empathizer was one of the few Ruby Eyes whose name and face were known to Mikawa. Liquidizer shrugged lightly at this. “That won’t be necessary. I can tell for myself whether you’re lying, boy. And I knew from the start that it couldn’t be you anyway.” “…Then why did you bring me out to eat and everything…?” “Orders from the top. All the mentors have been told to speak to the members they looked after directly about it.” “That’s a pretty high-strung, roundabout way of doing things for the Syndicate. Usually they’re so hands-off that it’s almost alarming.” “…Most likely, they intend to use Empathizer if nobody comes forward at this rate. It would be too difficult to have Empathizer examine the memories of every single member from that night, but it’s easy enough to just double-check the memory of when they were asked about it.” “…So he might take a look inside my head after all, then.” Mikawa chewed his lip a little. If it was only the memory of being quizzed by Liquidizer just now, it would be mildly uncomfortable at worst. However, he definitely didn’t want anyone looking at the memory of an hour ago, in the cold-storage warehouse. If Empathizer saw that, Mikawa would have to kill him. “No need to look so distressed.” Mikawa stiffened when he felt the sudden whisper at his left ear. Placing her hand on Mikawa’s right shoulder, Liquidizer brought her face even closer to his. At this rate, they’d draw the attention of others even if they couldn’t hear a thing. But his former master didn’t seem to care about that as she continued to speak. “If by any chance you do end up being scanned, I’ll be there with you. I won’t let him look at any more memories than necessary.” At these words, Mikawa finally understood Liquidizer’s intentions. At the same time, for whatever reason, he felt a prickling pain deep in his chest. “…I see… So that’s why you took me all the way to Odaiba instead of asking me at the warehouse. You were buying time to make sure Empathizer couldn’t go all the way back to that point so easily.” “Well, that’s not the only reason. The more information that’s present in a memory, the harder it is for Empathizer to scan further back. The crowds in Odaiba and the taste and smell of okonomiyaki should make for a sizable challenge, wouldn’t you agree?” “…Most definitely.” Nodding, Mikawa opened his mouth wide and popped in the piece of the oyster okonomiyaki that Liquidizer had given him. The taste was denser and more complex than that of the beef and onion, and it spread through his whole mouth. This alone would probably be enough to cover up any other memories, but the strange sensation in his chest still wouldn’t quite go away. Until now, Mikawa hadn’t felt anything other than fear toward Liquidizer—at least, he didn’t think so. He was grateful to her for rescuing him from the police and showing him how to live as a Ruby Eye, of course, but that was mutually beneficial. He was a useful asset to the Syndicate, after all. The only reason he was still going along with Liquidizer’s demands was in order to make his dream of a Snowball Earth become a reality. And yet. In the fight at Minami-Aoyama, when Divider pointed a gun at Liquidizer, who’d been rendered unconscious by Accelerator’s stun gun… Despite knowing that he would die if he took another hit, he mustered the last of his strength to freeze Divider’s gun. And when Divider asked why he didn’t run away, his only answer was “I don’t know.” Was it possible that something had changed for him since that moment? Was that why his chest felt so strangely tight right now…? “Boy…no, Mikawa.” Mikawa blinked, startled. It was strange to hear her call him by the name he’d chosen, even if it wasn’t his real one. Looking to his left, he saw that Liquidizer had finished eating her okonomiyaki and was looking at him with an unusually sincere expression. “Wh…what is it?” “To be honest, even if they use Empathizer’s memory scan to seek out X, the member who killed those SDF members…I don’t think they’ll find anything.” “Huh…?” Mikawa blinked again. “You mean…a Ruby Eye that strong would be able to resist even Empathizer’s power, you think?” “Not quite. If someone resisted the scan, that would be as good as a confession, don’t you agree? No, I have a feeling that X is an independent Ruby…one that doesn’t belong to the Syndicate.” “No way… I mean…” Mikawa furrowed his brow. “It happened at a Syndicate hideout, didn’t it? Why would an independent Ruby Eye be there?” “Getting information about the hideout can’t be any harder than killing six elite members of the Self-Defense Forces, as far as I’m concerned. Even the SFD members were able to find the safe house in Minami-Aoyama. Most likely, I’d imagine they tracked Empathizer’s car with the N System. I told him not to use the boulevard…” “…This is why that Peeping Tom can’t be trusted.” “Well, we had to get rid of the car, so he’ll be getting around on a moped for a while as punishment.” That sounded like a good punishment to Mikawa, although he himself usually traveled by foot or by train. He liked walking, but it did take much longer to get away from a crime scene that way, which was how Divider and an unidentified rifle user had followed him into Aoyama Park. Maybe I should at least get a scooter or something, he thought as he replied. “…If an independent Ruby who’s not a Syndicate member really broke into the Keihinjima hideout and managed to kill a team of six Self-Defense Forces members…what on earth was the motive? Was he trying to show off his skills to get into the Syndicate or something?” Liquidizer immediately shot down Mikawa’s guess. “I doubt it. If this person has such a strong attacking ability, we’d gladly accept them without a need for them to prove it in actual combat…assuming their personality and such suited us, of course. But in that case, surely this X person would contact the Syndicate, no? And since that hasn’t happened, I think it served a different purpose.” “A different purpose…” Mikawa repeated his former master’s words, searching his brain for any other possibilities. Since he hadn’t gone to school very much, he was a bit self-conscious at times that he might not be a sharp thinker, but if he decided to just give up thinking entirely, he wouldn’t survive for long. “…Could it be a coincidence that X fought with the SDF team? Maybe he’d been hiding out there for a while…in which case, his goal might be…” Unconsciously, Mikawa gripped the wooden chopsticks in his right hand so hard that they creaked in protest. However, he didn’t notice the noise and kept speaking in a low voice. “Are they…trying to hunt not Jet Eyes but Ruby Eyes…? Syndicate members…?” “C’est bien. I believe that is X’s goal.” With that, Liquidizer picked up the last remaining piece of minced cucumber and snapped it neatly in half. “……Well, unless……” Mikawa thought he heard her murmur something else, but she didn’t finish the thought out loud.