Chapter 45

7 Slowly walking west along the path through Toyama Park, Minoru heard the sound of a three-cylinder engine rapidly approaching from up ahead. A black Agusta F3 800. The cowl shone like a mirror despite frequent use, and the screen was equally spotless. Come to think of it, this motorcycle’s Italian like the Alfa Romeo, isn’t it? Minoru thought as he slowed to a halt. The motorcycle did an elegant U-turn around him and stopped as well. Yumiko dismounted and set up the kickstand. She must have been rushing for Minoru’s sake; instead of her usual leather getup, she was wearing a biker’s jacket over her blazer and had simply added leg warmers up to her knees instead of changing into her pants. In other words, she was still wearing her uniform skirt. “U-um…will you be all right speeding around in that…?” “What, am I going to just take it off and drive without it?” Minoru had no comeback for that as Yumiko pulled out his helmet, which had previously been used by Sanae Ikoma, from the rear case. Accepting it, Minoru stored his messenger bag where the helmet had been. Donning the helmet and turning on the built-in intercom and visor display, he promptly heard Yumiko’s voice in his ear. “All right, let’s go. I’ll treat you to an extra-special ride as thanks for the mochi.” “S-sure.” What does “extra-special” mean?! Minoru panicked inwardly. She’s not going to use her acceleration ability, is she…? But it was too late to worry about that. Now that he was sitting on her monster machine, all he could do was trust his fate to the whims of the rider. The Agusta started up easily. Then just as the gear changed from second to third— “Yukko, Mikkun, are you still nearby?!” Professor Riri Isa’s voice burst out urgently from the intercom speakers. “Yes, we’re still in Toyama Park…” “Thank goodness. There’s been a 3E incident in Oomori West in Ota Ward! There was a small-scale explosion on the outside staircase of an apartment complex, and two residents who went to see what happened were killed!” “……!” Yumiko’s sharp gasp echoed through the speakers, and Minoru, hanging on to her on the motorcycle, felt her body tense. “What was the MO?!” Yumiko lowered the speed of the motorcycle as she asked, and the Professor hesitated for just a moment before responding. “…They were both bleeding from one ear, with no other visible trauma. In other words, it’s possible that it was the work of the assailant from NCAM—Stinger.” “What…?!” This time it was Minoru who exclaimed with surprise. “It was just after four o’clock that Stinger escaped from the hospital! There’s already another incident not even three hours later…?!” “If it really is Stinger, then yes, so it would seem… It’s certainly not impossible to get to Ota Ward in three hours—by train, car, even on foot—but it seems too soon for them to take action again like this.” “Either way, we have to hurry! Utsugi, are you coming?” There was no way that Minoru could refuse. He’d end up getting home late at night or maybe not at all, and he’d have to lie to Norie, too—but as a Jet Eye and a member of the SFD, he had to do it. “Yes, of course!” As soon as he responded, Yumiko touched her helmet against his with a clunk. “All right. Now hang on tight!” “Right!” Minoru nodded again, holding on to Yumiko with his arms and both knees. The motorcycle’s right turn signal went on as they made another U-turn. Then the pair darted along the winding path out of the park. As soon as the bike hit the broader main road, the flashing red patrol lights lit up on the rear case. “Professor, please send me the location!” In a matter of seconds, a full-color map appeared in the lower right corner of the visor display. In the center, a red dot marked their destination. Minoru wasn’t very familiar with Ota Ward, but it seemed to be less than five kilometers northwest of Haneda Airport. Which meant… “Huh…this is close to the place where the STS team was killed by Stinger, isn’t it…?” After a moment, the Professor’s voice responded. “…You’re right… I’m not sure whether it’s a coincidence or not. We don’t even know what the source of the explosion was… There’s too little information.” “The victims this time weren’t Third Eye holders, were they?” As soon as Minoru asked the question, he realized that he already knew the answer. “Oh, never mind, I’m sorry. You said the only external wound was bleeding from the ears.” “Right. Since there was no exodus phenomenon, they must not have been Jet or Ruby Eyes. Therefore, I believe that they were simply caught up in the situation like the victims at the hospital, not targeted by Stinger.” “…In that case, it’s possible that Stinger was targeting someone else—it could be a Jet Eye who the SFD hasn’t discovered yet. So maybe the explosion was that person’s ability…?” The Professor didn’t respond to Yumiko right away. After several dozen seconds, as the motorcycle was turning onto Waseda Avenue, she finally spoke through the intercom in an uncharacteristically short tone. “…There’s just not enough data yet. I can’t say anything for certain. The Oomori police force is checking the security cameras in the area right now, but it is a residential area… As soon as we have more information, I’ll let you know right away. DD is heading there from the hospital, too, but you’ll probably get there first.” “Understood. We should be arriving at the scene in about…fifteen minutes.” Sitting in the tandem seat, Minoru was startled by Yumiko’s response. The expected arrival time displayed on the navigation screen of the visor display was more than forty minutes from now. The shortest route from Toyama in Shinjuku Ward to Oomori in Ota Ward was nearly twenty kilometers, which seemed like it would take at least that long, but apparently, the GPS’s estimated time didn’t apply to the Accelerator. Its lights flashing, the motorcycle zipped from Waseda Avenue to Kagurazaka, then entered the Shuto Expressway at Nishikanda. As they passed the Electronic Toll Collection gate, the motorcycle’s siren blared shrilly. Since today was still the third day of the New Year’s holiday, traffic was flowing smoothly, but there were still more than a few cars on the road. Moreover, the Shuto Expressway was structured almost like a circuit, so full of twists and turns that there didn’t seem to be a straight section to be found. Nonetheless, Yumiko unhesitatingly opened up the accelerator and started weaving between the left and right lanes effortlessly. The GPS speed indicator at the bottom left of the display immediately rose past ninety-five kilometers per hour and continued climbing at a frightening speed. Even sitting in the back, Minoru felt like he was about to fly off at any moment, so he could only guess how intense the wind pressure was for Yumiko. I really can’t just stay behind Yumiko forever… Just as the thought crossed Minoru’s mind, Yumiko twisted her right wrist sharply. The three-cylinder engine gave a high-pitched roar; the intense torque pushed the body of the motorcycle forward… Then Yumiko’s ability amplified that speed many times over. Zoom! The motorcycle seemed to snap the air itself as it took off down the center of the two lanes like a bullet. For just a moment, the digital speedometer read over three hundred kilometers per hour. As soon as they all but teleported across the short straight section of the Shuto Expressway and the tires touched back down on the ground after floating about five centimeters in the air, sparks flew from the brake rotor and the motorcycle sharply decelerated. They cleared the corner at a bank angle so low Minoru’s knee practically scraped the ground, before fiercely accelerating again along the next straight portion of the expressway. Unlike the previous times, Minoru somehow managed to refrain from screaming, but he couldn’t help but seriously consider buying a motorcycle of his own. When the motorcycle had made it along the Shuto Expressway from the Ikebukuro line to the Yaesu line, then down to the Heiwajima interchange via the Haseda line, the visor display clock showed a time of 7:09 p.m. Just as she had declared, Yumiko had made it across central Tokyo in less than fifteen minutes. Stopping the siren, they rode farther with only the flashing lights for another two minutes. The pair dismounted from the motorcycle about ninety meters away from the scene, informed headquarters that they had arrived, and took off their helmets. Yumiko removed her leg warmers as well. She was still wearing her riding shoes, but this looked natural enough, since they matched the jacket she was wearing over her uniform. Yumiko’s helmet and leg warmers went into the rear case along with Minoru’s messenger bag, and Minoru’s helmet was hooked onto the side. Since it was a full-face helmet, it usually felt rather cramped to wear, but this time he felt a bit uneasy when he removed it. “Since Stinger aims for the ears, it would be nice if we could keep our helmets on…” Yumiko shrugged lightly in response. “That’s true enough, but it would look rather unnatural to walk around with helmets on, and it would likely give us away to the enemy all the faster. But don’t worry—we can protect our ears with these.” Yumiko reached into the breast pocket of her biker’s jacket and produced two pairs of wireless earbuds. Transparent antenna-like parts extended from the metal housing. “They just completed these prototypes at headquarters, so I brought them along. Try it out.” “A…all right.” Minoru accepted his pair and pushed them into his ears. They fit quite tightly into his ear canals, probably to prevent them from coming out if the wearer moved around too violently, so Minoru could hardly hear any external sound. But as soon as the power supply turned on automatically, the sounds of his surroundings were audible again. “How is it? Can you hear?” Yumiko was wearing her headphones as well; although her voice was probably being conveyed to him through the wireless communication, it sounded perfectly natural. “Yes, very clearly… Were these made just because of Stinger?” “Goodness, of course not. Development on these started long before that. I’ll explain their original purpose later—for now, let’s just get to the scene.” “Right!” Nodding to each other, the two began to run along the residential street. Before long, they saw a number of police cars with their red lights blazing. The narrow road was completely sealed off, with yellow tape stretched across it. The four-story apartment building on the other side seemed to be the scene of the crime. If this were a comic or a movie, the secret organization agents would probably push through the warning tape and flash their IDs dramatically at the police offers on the scene. Unfortunately, the SFD had no such identity cards. Apparently, only the National Police Agency Security Bureau’s and the Public Safety Department of the police headquarters knew of the SFD’s existence, so high schoolers like Minoru and Yumiko waving around identity cards wouldn’t mean a thing to the policemen present. Therefore, the pair stopped behind the dozens of onlookers and started by smelling the air. There was no trace of the particular bestial smell of Ruby Eyes in the chilly night air. If the person who killed the two residents was Stinger, they were long gone. We’ll probably need DD’s searching ability to track Stinger from here… As if reading Minoru’s thoughts, the voice of the man himself came through the wireless earbuds. “DD here. Sorry, Yumiko, I got caught in traffic by the Yamate Tunnel… I’m going to change routes at the next exit, but I won’t be there until around seven.” The earbuds apparently had some kind of network connection function, making it easy to communicate without taking out their smartphones every time. Minoru imagined appreciatively that this must have been the “original purpose” of the earbuds. “Understood,” Yumiko responded in a low voice. “There are no signs of Ruby Eyes on the scene at the moment. We’ll search the surrounding area.” “Roger that. Just be careful, got it?” Once the conversation ended, the two of them looked at each other. “…We can’t wait another twenty-five minutes.” “Right… I’m worried about the Jet Eye who Stinger might have been targeting. It seems like they escaped from here all right, but we have to help them before Stinger gets them…” Yumiko nodded. “Of course… Which way would you run if it was you, Utsugi?” Surprised by the question, Minoru looked around uncertainly. The apartment complex was surrounded by other buildings on three sides, so the only escape route was the road where they were standing. So the question was whether they went east or west… In his mind, Minoru imagined the map of the area he’d formed as they traveled. To the west of here, there was a large residential area with a complicated network of thin, intertwined roads. To the east, on the other hand, the road continued past the rails and the national highway to an area of reclaimed land. There were no houses at all, only warehouses, factories, parks, wholesale markets, and so on. “East…I think.” Minoru turned. “The most frightening thing about Stinger’s ability is that you could be shot with a spinebug from the shadows at any moment. I didn’t notice anyone was there until one stabbed my neck… So open spaces of reclaimed land would probably be safer than a convoluted residential area.” “Hmm…yes, you’re right. Let’s go this way, then.” Yumiko started to run as soon as she finished speaking, so Minoru hurried after her. They passed under the railway track and Route 1 overpass, heading toward the Heiwajima landfill. As they ran, both continued to check the air for signs of the Ruby Eye. The beastly smell would be their best hope of finding the solitary enemy in such a large area. Even so, a Third Eye holder’s ability to sense another generally only worked within a few dozen meters and was only clear if the other person used their own ability. This would be much easier for DD, who had an incomparable sense of smell… But there was nothing they could do about his getting stuck in traffic. Trying to maximize the use of his nose as best he could, Minoru ran with his face tilted slightly upward. As a result, though, he was less watchful of the ground below. Before he knew it, his foot caught in a small depression in the road, sending him swiftly to the ground. He just barely managed to avoid landing face-first by throwing his arms out in front of him but ended up in a position that made it look like he was doing push-ups. “Hey, are you all right?!” Yumiko came running back with an expression that was half-concerned and half-exasperated. “…I’m fine,” Minoru mumbled, embarrassed. “I just took my eyes off the ground a little too much…” “That happens quite often with new Jet Eyes. I’m sure you’ll be more careful now that you’ve fallen once.” Yumiko held out her right hand, and Minoru took it with his left. But just as she was helping him to his feet— “……!!” Minoru’s eyes widened, and he let go of Yumiko’s hand. “Ah! Hey!” The sudden release set Yumiko off-balance, and she toppled onto the ground herself. She looked like she was about to start yelling right there, but Minoru held up a hand to stop her. “Yumiko…that smell!” At that, Yumiko’s expression changed from anger to confusion. Taking his eyes off her face, Minoru put both hands back on the pavement and concentrated solely on his nose. He definitely felt something. It was very faint, but there was no mistaking that smell. There was nothing else in the city that would smell so savage and wild. Searching for the source, Minoru moved to his left, still on all fours. The road toward the landfill had two lanes, so a car could come up from behind at any moment, but Minoru trusted that to Yumiko and closed his eyes. He followed the scent, so sparse that the slightest breeze might blow it away. After a few dozen seconds, the odor seemed to become a little stronger… Minoru opened his eyes. There was something lying along the side of the road. An incredibly thin thread, shining faintly in the light of the streetlamps. Minoru picked it up delicately between his fingertips, and the thread snapped, dangling about twenty centimeters from his fingers. “Yumiko, look at this.” Yumiko approached dubiously, and Minoru held up the practically weightless string in front of her nose. Yumiko sniffed it cautiously, then drew back sharply as if repulsed. “……! It smells like a Ruby…” “Exactly… I think this was made by Stinger’s ability. The Professor said the wireworm was made up of thousands of extremely fine threads. This must be one of those…” “…But why would it be lying by the road? A thread this thin couldn’t be used for attacking or defending…” Yumiko trailed off, suddenly realizing the answer. “Wait…it must be for tracking!” “I think so, too. Stinger must have attached a thread-producing insect to the fleeing Jet Eye, to use for chasing them down after killing the witnesses…” “Which means…the Stinger is on the other end of this thread!” Yumiko stooped down and looked at the surface of the road. Before long, she looked up and exclaimed to Minoru. “If it were daytime we probably wouldn’t be able to see it, but now the reflecting light makes it just barely visible! Come on!” “R…right! I’ll keep an eye on our surroundings!” Yumiko began following the thread as she ran, and Minoru followed, casting his eyes around at the road and the buildings nearby. In an area with plenty of water, even if he couldn’t defeat his opponent, he certainly wouldn’t lose. Ryuu Mikawa, the Trancer, had always been confident in that. But now, he ran right through Heiwanomori Park and Heiwajima Park, where there was a very large pond, and kept running east. It wasn’t that he was so terrified of X, the Ruby-hunting Ruby Eye with the insect-creating ability. It was certainly a difficult ability to deal with, but Mikawa could handle it if he had a large source of water, and it was possible that his water-bottle bomb had rendered the other Ruby incapable of chasing him in the first place. And yet, the uneasy tension in his stomach hadn’t eased up in the slightest. Perhaps it wasn’t because of X so much as the fact that he still didn’t know why that person had appeared. He could just wait for X to catch up, so he could fight the other Ruby Eye and win. But there were other potential problems to worry about. If the Syndicate, or even Liquidizer herself, had decided to get rid of Mikawa and sent an assassin after him, the situation was very grave. The Syndicate had given Mikawa a name, a home, and living expenses, and now all that would be cut off. More worrying still, even if Mikawa defeated X, sooner or later, there would be another attacker… Liquidizer might even come to wipe Mikawa out herself. What should I do? No, what do I want to do? His mind still full of panic and confusion, Mikawa crossed the canal over New Heiwa Bridge and entered Tokai 1-chome. If he kept running, he would come out on the Shuto Expressway Wangan line, then he could cross that to the JR railway yard, then—Ooi Futo. …Well, that’s fine, Mikawa thought unexpectedly. If the time came for him to die, he would die, and that was that. It was too bad he wouldn’t be able to realize his dream of a Snowball Earth, but without the Syndicate…without Liquidizer’s help, he would’ve already been killed by the black hunters by now anyway. Besides, since he’d killed so many innocent people already, it would be laughable for Mikawa to suddenly panic when his turn arrived. But at the very least, he wanted to choose where he would die. He wanted to enter eternal sleep in that cold and quiet place, together with OO. Pulling out his smartphone, which he’d been gripping inside his jacket pocket, Mikawa tapped the phone application resolutely. Since Liquidizer was probably the only person he’d ever call on this phone, it would have made sense to make a shortcut directly to her number on the home screen, but then her information would easily be compromised if the phone fell into enemy hands. Instead, he used a special app that didn’t leave a call history and quickly input the number he’d memorized. Of course, it was still possible that someone could access the call records through the carrier company, but at least this would buy them some time in that situation. Wondering if this phone call would be his last, Mikawa listened to the ringing tone. After three rings, the other party picked up. “It’s me.” Her voice sounded the same as always. Mikawa gathered strength in his gut and cut to the chase. “This is Mikawa. I was attacked at my apartment.” There was a sharp gasp on the other line. “A Jet Eye? Are you hurt, boy?” He could hear a touch of surprise and worry underneath her cool tone, but if she was acting, Mikawa wouldn’t be able to tell. All he could do was relay the facts to her. “I’m not injured, but I had to use a water-bottle bomb to get away, so it probably caused a big scene. The police may have come by now.” “That hardly matters. Right now, you should just be focused on getting away from the black hunters.” “About that…” Mikawa recalled the eerie figure of the Ruby Eye in the red coat as he spoke. “It was a red Third Eye holder that attacked me, not a black one. There’s no doubt in my mind—I didn’t smell anything even when they used their ability. It’s probably the same person who killed the Self-Defense Forces agents at Keihinjima…” “X?! Why would that person show up at your house…?!” The shock in Liquidizer’s voice definitely sounded genuine to Mikawa as she spoke faster. “If there was an information leak from the Syndicate, the safe houses will be dangerous, too—you mustn’t go near them. I’ll pick you up elsewhere. Where are you now?!” This was the moment of truth. Mikawa closed his eyes for just a moment as he ran, then spoke. “I’m heading for the place where you found me last night.” “Understood. We’ll meet there, then. I’ll be there in thirty…no, twenty-five minutes.” “All right. The enemy could be anywhere by now, so please drive safely.” After ending the call, Mikawa breathed deeply. If Liquidizer arrived to kill Mikawa instead of save him, he didn’t plan on running anymore. He would resist, of course—he would fight back with all his might, with intent to kill equal to hers. But if he lost anyway…he would ask to be allowed to freeze to death in the cold-storage warehouse instead of being liquefied. She seemed like the type of woman who would at least listen to her former pupil’s last request, perhaps. Passing through the vast container yard and crossing the track of the Tokaido freight line, Mikawa entered the warehouse district of Ooi Futo. Because of the holiday, there wasn’t a car or person in sight. Mikawa looked back from time to time, but there was no sign that anyone was following him. Mikawa swerved left as he continued running along the dark road. Around the time that the scent of the tide started to reach him, a familiar square silhouette appeared before his eyes. An old cold-storage warehouse built some decades ago. He had just been there earlier that day, but it seemed like a completely different place at night—not like a commercial facility that was still in use by any means. At night, it was as desolate as a tomb. With that uncharacteristic thought, Mikawa crossed the truck yard and headed around to the side of the warehouse. There were no vehicles in the parking lot, which was overgrown with withered plants. Liquidizer had said she would arrive in twenty-five minutes, but if she was on her way to kill him, she would probably be there earlier. Walking up to the water faucet on the wall of the warehouse, Mikawa opened the tap. Then he breathed on the drainage area to freeze it, so that the water spread out in a black pool over the asphalt. Mikawa suppressed the desire to enter the cold-storage warehouse with the key in his left pocket. It would technically be easier to fight inside, but he didn’t want the pillar that contained OO to be caught in the cross fire from Liquidizer and melt. That was the one thing he refused to allow. But even outside, he could still hold his own if he had enough water. Mikawa scooped up some of the ice-cold water gushing out of the tap. Then he breathed carefully on the little pool in his hands. The clump got bigger little by little, until he pulled his hand away when it was about ten centimeters around. What was left in his palm was a transparent sphere of ice. It had taken no small amount of training until he could use his ability to control the solidification of water enough to make a perfect sphere. He had eliminated as much of the impurities of the tap water as possible, such as minerals and chlorine, so the resultant ball of ice was hard and wouldn’t melt easily. Mikawa continued producing more of the balls, rolling them into various parts of the parking lot as the puddle gradually spread over it. Since the asphalt was a dark black and the ice balls were perfectly transparent, it was hard to distinguish them from the reflected light on the surface of the water, even for Mikawa. To finish his preparations, he made three more, hiding one in each pocket of his jacket and one in his left hand. According to the cheap quartz watch on his left wrist, there were still fifteen minutes until Liquidizer’s estimated arrival time. She could show up at any moment. There were two entrances to the parking lot, one through the truck yard in front and a general entrance gate at the back; Liquidizer would probably use the back entrance. Mikawa stood in the center of the puddle and turned to face that way. The cold water soaked into his sneakers, but he paid no attention. Despite the tense situation, Mikawa’s mind was strangely calm. A plane passed almost frighteningly low on its way to land at Haneda Airport, using the new route that began operation last year to coincide with the Tokyo Olympics. The loud roar did nothing to disturb Mikawa’s mental state, but it did wipe out all other sounds around him for an instant. So this time, it was because Mikawa was concentrating all his senses that he noticed it, not mere coincidence. Mixed in with the roar of the airplane…an incredibly tiny sound of wind behind his head. “……!” Mikawa ducked instinctively, and a flying object skimmed over his neck at high speed. It felt exactly the same as when he was attacked at the entrance to his apartment. As the object whipped past, then turned back toward him sharply, Mikawa kicked the water at his feet toward it with all his might. Then he sent a sharp but quiet breath toward the spray of water. Instead of freezing, the drops of water were supercooled and froze over the flying object as they made contact with it, finally closing it in a thick casing of ice. The lump of ice dropped into the puddle at Mikawa’s feet with a splash, and he crushed it under his sneaker before quickly turning around. At the entrance of the parking lot, near the edge of the truck yard, lurked a single silhouette. The light of a distant streetlight revealed a long dark-red coat with a matte texture. The person’s gloves were the same color, and they wore long boots on their feet. And once again, the large hood masked their face in total darkness. Mikawa smelled the air once again. Just as he’d expected, there was no trace of the chemical odor black abilities gave off. There was no doubt about it. This was the red-coated Ruby Eye who had attacked him at home. But how had the enemy found him here when he was so sure he’d shaken off any tails? The answer was obvious. Mikawa’s brain refused to accept it for a while, but he couldn’t deny the facts right before his eyes. Liquidizer must have sent that Ruby hunter after him. Immediately after the call from Mikawa, she had contacted and sent X to this place. He could think of no other explanation. In other words, Mikawa had been cast aside—by the Syndicate executive, his mentor, his former master who’d treated him to okonomiyaki. Mikawa was a little surprised by how much shock and despair he felt. Because they were both homicidal Ruby Eyes, he had always known this time would come, and he’d been fully prepared to try to kill her earlier that evening if she tried to melt OO’s ice…or so he had thought. And yet. If he couldn’t avoid fighting, he would have preferred his opponent to be his master herself. Mikawa had no intention of being erased like a simple task by a Ruby Eye whose name and face he didn’t even know. This was the second time he had dodged X’s attack, which should have been a certain kill if this was an assassination attempt, yet the enemy showed no signs of being shaken. The Ruby Eye’s long boots splashed into the puddle in which Mikawa stood as they unhesitatingly crossed the parking lot toward him. If this person was working for Liquidizer, surely she would have revealed Mikawa’s ability; since they weren’t avoiding the water, they were either incredibly confident in their own ability or simply reckless. In any case, if Mikawa was going to fight, he had no intention of holding back. Mikawa switched the ice ball in his left hand over to his right, then hurled it at the enemy’s left side. The distance between them was about twenty-four meters. This was farther than it had been back in front of Mikawa’s home, but the ice ball was much faster and easier to control than the water bottle. Just as Mikawa had planned, the other Ruby tried to move to the right to avoid the ball. In that direction, another ice ball that Mikawa had rolled was lying in wait. Concentrating on both of them at once, Mikawa breathed a long, wide breath. He didn’t simply melt the ice balls. Instead, he left an outer shell of less than a centimeter of ice and heated the interior into steam in an instant. The thought that Mikawa released with full power—the invisible energy that the Syndicate apparently called the seventh force—violently shook the water molecules inside the ice, turning them to high-pressure, high-temperature steam. The huge amount of pressure was too much for the brittle outer shell of the ice ball, and it held for only a fraction of an instant before exploding with a high-pitched boom. The ice shell shattered into countless sharp fragments, flying into the red-coated attacker from the left and right. The rest of the ice bullets mostly shot up toward the sky, but a few hit the side of the warehouse, and some even flew toward Mikawa. He turned them back to water with a quick breath, catching them on his jacket. This ice grenade had pierced even the special battle suits of the high-tech SFD, causing serious injury to Divider, so no ordinary store-bought coat could possibly defend against it. The other Ruby had likely taken a lot of damage. However, his mentor had taught him not to let his guard down at times like these. Even if the enemy went down, you had to keep attacking without mercy until the Third Eye left their bodies. Until then, there was no assuming that you’d won. Hufffff… Mikawa sent a sharp breath toward the puddle at the staggering X’s feet. The puddle, which was nearly five centimeters deep, froze over a two-meter radius, trapping the enemy’s feet. The Ruby Eye wouldn’t be able to move now without removing their boots. Mikawa took out another ice ball from his right pocket and took aim. This time, he would toss it right into the hood that hid the Ruby’s face. If an ice grenade exploded right in front of someone’s face, the shards would pierce the skull and dig right into the brain. No human being could survive that, not even a Ruby or a Jet. Mikawa started to throw with all his might, but as he did so, his eyes widened for just an instant. Glittering in the distant streetlight, countless fragments of ice were crumbling away from X’s entire body. Those were the ice bullets that had dug into the fabric of the coat. It looked as if not a single one had gotten through. Mikawa was shocked, but he didn’t let it break his posture. Instead, he instantly moved his aim lower. Liquidizer had instructed him to refine his strongest weapons to the maximum limit, so he had practiced his pitching in the numerous parks in the nearby area of reclaimed land. A man who was apparently the coach of a local sandlot baseball team even told him that he was good enough to make the team. There was no way X could dodge Mikawa’s low fastball, even by ducking. It wouldn’t be as dangerous as a direct hit to the face, but if Mikawa blew up the ice grenade just as it hit somewhere on his opponent’s body, he should still be able to land a fatal wound. The ice ball whistled as it flew through the air. Then, the red-coated Ruby Eye effortlessly slipped both boots out of the ice frozen around them, stepping to the right to avoid it. Dumbfounded, Mikawa heard the ice ball crash into something in the darkness of the truck yard and smash to pieces. Why was X able to move? Long boots or not, they shouldn’t have been able to pull out from five-centimeter-thick ice so easily. Had they predicted that the boots might get frozen and coated the slick surface in oil or something? If so, then surely that was at Liquidizer’s instruction. His former master was using the utmost care to ensure that she killed Mikawa…no, that this mysterious Ruby Eye X could kill him. As a fresh wave of realization went through his mind, Mikawa lost his strength for just a moment. And as if aiming for that very instant— X raised their left hand, and three small objects were launched out of the palm in rapid succession. The insects. I have to stop them. Some part of Mikawa’s brain, or maybe it was his Ruby Eye itself, made him move half automatically to kick up the water at his feet. He breathed on the wall of splashing water to supercool it. That would stop the insect attacks. Then he would make all of the remaining ice balls in the puddle explode… But then— The three insects, moving at a speed just barely visible even to a Ruby Eye’s vision, spouted white flames from their back ends. Accelerating like tiny missiles, the bugs shook off Mikawa’s kinetic vision and disappeared. The beads of supercooled water were smashed in midair, turning into a fine spray. Immediately after, Mikawa felt a sharp impact and burning heat in his right shoulder, left arm, and the middle of his abdomen. As he fell backward into the puddle, he knew that the three needlelike insects had pierced him. Intense pain set in two seconds later, but Mikawa fought it off as he assessed the damage. The wounds in his shoulder and arm were painful but certainly not life-threatening. However, the abdominal wound was a bad one. It felt like his vital organs had taken damage, and the sword wound on his chest had started bleeding again from impact of the fall. He had to activate the rest of the grenades and fast. Covering the wound in his right shoulder with his left hand, Mikawa managed to raise himself up with just his right hand. Then he saw another white light. A fourth missile insect pierced through the right side of his chest and exited through his back. Mikawa fell back to the ground. The grenades… Still determined, Mikawa tried to breathe toward the remaining ice balls while still lying in the puddle. But the air wouldn’t enter his chest. A hole in one of his lungs was causing an open pneumothorax. His right lung had collapsed enough to cease functioning. The left lung was somehow still functioning, but his wounds from Divider prevented him from breathing in enough air. As a result, Mikawa could no longer activate his abilities as the Trancer. The Ruby Eye X walked soundlessly toward the fallen Mikawa. As usual, he couldn’t see the face underneath the hood. He couldn’t feel any emotions, either. Who was it who said that Third Eye holders’ abilities all came, without exception, from a fear of the world around them? Mikawa had empathized with those words. It was certainly more than likely that the wall Mikawa had felt between himself and others since a young age was created by fear. The day that he learned that OO would never wake up again only crystallized that. Mikawa hated the world that had refused to save OO, and somewhere deep in his heart, he grew fearful of the most common substance in the world, water. Human beings are made of water. When he thought about that, Mikawa was seized with a deep fear. However, this X showed no signs of any such fear. The source of the ability to produce and control insects should theoretically be a fear of insects, but X’s behavior was too indifferent…as if their ability was nothing more than a tool. “…Are…you…?” Mikawa coughed up bloody foam as he tried to speak in a muffled voice. Are you really a Ruby Eye? he wanted to ask, but his voice refused to come out. Reaching a distance of about nine meters away, the other Ruby Eye lifted their left hand. The nozzle-like metal circle in the center of the gloved palm produced a new insect with a faint sound. This wasn’t one of the elongated missile insects but the round thorn type that had originally attacked Mikawa. If it entered his body, there would be no recovering. He couldn’t defend himself, so he had to evade it somehow. Yet, in spite of this knowledge, his body wouldn’t move. His body was rapidly losing oxygen because of his inability to breathe sufficiently. With a faint whizzing sound, the thorn insect drew a large arc in the air and swooped toward Mikawa’s neck. But just then— Someone burst into the parking lot through the thick shrubbery on the left side. Flinging their body forward, the newcomer stretched out their right hand and caught the insect that was about to pierce Mikawa’s neck. Immediately afterward, a small amount of liquid splashed to the ground. …Master…? Why would you save me…? His head foggy from lack of oxygen, Mikawa looked up at his rescuer, who was inspecting the crushed remains of the insect with an expression of faint surprise. Then, forgetting for a moment that he was on the verge of death, he gasped. “…?!” It wasn’t Liquidizer. It was a boy…around his age, probably a high school student. There was nothing unusual about his jeans and mountain parka, but his unique hair that looked almost silver when light hit it was unmistakable. It was a Jet Eye. A member of the SFD, code name Isolator. What are you doing here? Why are you protecting me…? Without responding to the questions Mikawa couldn’t quite voice, the ashen-haired boy quickly picked himself up. “Run! As far away as you can…!” The voice, probably directed at Mikawa, had a slightly unnatural ring to it. At that moment, Mikawa realized that Isolator’s sneakers weren’t touching the water on the ground. He was using his ability, the invisible barrier. The voice seemed to be coming out of a small device fixed to his left wrist from above the force field. That answered a more minor question, though the mystery as to why a Jet Eye would help Mikawa remained. However, the Isolator scarcely glanced at Mikawa’s face as he stood to face off against the red-coated Ruby Eye. Raising their left hand, X fired a missile insect. Shooting white flames from its back end, the pointed end of the insect zoomed toward the boy’s face—and was knocked away with a dull crack. As always, the power of that force field was frightfully impressive. X retreated for the first time, trying to get some distance from the Isolator. The Ruby stopped just outside the puddle Mikawa had made, and then— Again, from the shrubbery on the left, there was an orange light and three explosive sounds. A handgun. Again, Mikawa wondered if it was Liquidizer, but again, he was mistaken.