Chapter 47

The powerful fibers that made up the bugs were liquefied instantly, and the moment they burst away from his body due to the tension, Minoru stood up quickly. Stinger’s back was still facing Minoru. Victory would depend on whether he could close the approximately eighteen-meter distance between them without being noticed. But the majority of that distance was through the deep puddle. He couldn’t splash through the water. Instead of running on the ground, he had to run on the water’s surface. Minoru stepped forward with his right foot, forming a tiny ripple in the black water. Go! Shouting in his mind, Minoru ran forward. The only noise he heard from the microphone was the faint sound of wind. Even when he stepped with all his might, the surface of the water didn’t break, only leaving successive ripples as footprints. Rather than the ground or the water, Minoru seemed to be running on the air itself. Nine meters…five meters… When there were only three meters left between them, Stinger, who was about to stab the syringe into Trancer’s chest, snapped upright. With frightening reaction speed, a wireworm shot out from the Stinger’s left hand toward Minoru. But just before it fired, Yumiko suddenly burst onto the scene as if sliding across the ground, slamming herself into Stinger’s right leg. Most likely, she had shifted her still-restrained body toward them and used her ability on the modest kinetic energy this created to propel herself forward. The wireworm that shot out of Stinger’s hand missed its target by a long shot, flying harmlessly out of the parking lot. In the next moment, Minoru spread his arms wide and tackled Stinger, firmly holding the Ruby Eye down. The insect user was right before his eyes. Yet, even at this short distance, the inside of the hood was still filled with darkness, and all that could be seen were two eyes. To be more precise, what Minoru saw was the whites of the two eyes that seemed to be floating in a dark-gray void. The pupils were perfectly black, so dark they seemed to suck in all the light around them. They revealed even less of the owner’s inner thoughts than Liquidizer’s mirror-esque eyes, as if there was only absolute nothingness— The eyes blinked only once. Minoru’s arms were pushed away, and he gritted his teeth. Stinger was incredibly powerful. Though the insect user was physically thinner than Minoru, he could tell his opponent was much stronger. At this rate, he would barely last five seconds more. I have no choice. Gathering his resolve, Minoru breathed in deeply. If he did this, it would definitely kill Stinger. But if he didn’t, Trancer, Liquidizer, and even Yumiko would be killed, leaving Minoru as the only survivor. He absolutely couldn’t allow that. No matter what. The sphere buried in the center of his chest pulsed. Energy overflowed from the Third Eye, filling up the interior of the shell with a bright golden glow. He was going to cause the protective shell to burst with the enemy grasped tightly in his arms. The diffusing shell was strong enough to burst through concrete or metal in an instant. Stinger’s body would be completely broken—destroyed beyond any chance of restoring its original shape. But he still had to do it. “Aaaaargh!” With a powerful yell, Minoru released the protective shell. First, the rubber strap of the mic device on his left wrist blew off. Then a deep-crimson liquid sprayed everywhere. However— It wasn’t blood from the enemy’s body. The coat of living insects had liquefied instantly, this time of its own accord, and slipped out of Minoru’s grasp. Stinger’s body was pushed upward as if riding on the surface of the diffusing shell. That speed, however, wasn’t enough to exceed the momentum of the burst. As soon as the space between Minoru’s arms closed, Stinger’s right foot was caught there, and the Ruby’s right leg was severed below the knee without any resistance. This time, it was real blood that gushed out as Stinger was flung high into the air by the pressure of the burst— And then stopped in midair. A strange rustling sound reached Minoru’s ears, no longer blocked by his protective shell. As soon as he recognized the source of the noise, he groaned. “N…no way…” Instead of returning to its original shape after liquefying itself, Stinger’s coat had become a set of gigantic bat-like wings, flapping violently. In other words, the human being was flying. Without the coat, Stinger’s body was wrapped in tight clothes that resembled a bodysuit. It must have been made with the same ability, as the suit material was closed around the place where Stinger’s lower right leg was severed, forming a spiral shape to prevent blood loss. Hovering up above, Stinger stared down at Minoru from within the still-intact hood and gave a whisper. Despite the loud beating of the wings, the voice was as clear as if it had crept into his ear. “…I’ll be back for you soon.” With that statement, Stinger’s artificial wings beat harder, carrying their owner straight up into the sky. The roaring engines of an airplane descending from above covered the sound of Stinger’s beating wings, and before long, the humanoid silhouette disappeared into the night sky. Looking down, Minoru saw two objects lying on the asphalt at his feet. The syringe with a cracked cylinder and the severed right leg. Which of these did they mean they’d be back for…? Minoru wondered absently. “Would you hurry up and do something about this?” Yumiko’s voice brought Minoru back to his senses. “Ah, r-right!” Minoru hurried over to the spot where she was lying, roughly a meter away. The wireworm entangling her body had lost its tension now that it was out of Stinger’s ability range, but its strength remained the same. Minoru tried to pull it with his hands at first, but of course, it didn’t give an inch. “There’s a knife in the right inner pocket of my jacket.” “Right…o-oh, but, um…” Minoru’s left hand froze in the air. Because of the worms tied around her, Yumiko’s biker jacket was pressed tight to her body. In order to get anything out of the inner pocket, he would have to do the impossible. “Now’s not the time to worry about that sort of thing. Hurry!” She was right. Steadying himself, Minoru reached his hand into the gap between her black blazer and her jacket, searching for the inner pocket with his fingertips. Doing his best to ignore any sensations other than the firmness of the knife, he managed to pull it out, then breathed a sigh of relief. Then, before Yumiko could scold him again, he quickly unfolded the collapsible blade and slid it under the wireworm. The worm resisted even the Aogami Super Steel blade for a while, but finally it frayed in the middle and broke. After Minoru repeated the same process two more times, the remaining restraints fell away, and Yumiko instantly rolled to her feet to pick up her fallen gun. Zoom! An instant later, she accelerated over to the north side of the parking lot. Stunned, Minoru followed her with his eyes, only to see that Liquidizer was no longer lying on the asphalt there. He looked around the parking lot, but the Ruby Eye in the sailor uniform was nowhere to be found. For her to move with a broken left arm and enough internal trauma to make her cough up blood must have taken considerable mental strength. Using her ability again to return, Yumiko shook her head with a vexed expression. “She’s not anywhere nearby.” “Did she liquefy the ground and escape again?” “I didn’t see any traces of that. We’ll have them put up a checkpoint at all the bridges that connect to this area… But first…” This time, Yumiko simply walked across the lot, her riding shoes clacking on the asphalt. She was heading toward the unconscious body of Trancer. Since there hadn’t been a Third Eye exodus from his body, he must still be alive, but he was completely unconscious. Yumiko stopped in front of his limp form, lifting the handgun in her right hand slightly. After a moment’s hesitation, Minoru called out to his partner’s back. “…Yumiko…” Apparently, that was enough to convey what he wanted to say to her. A few seconds later, the Accelerator returned the handgun to her shoulder holster and took out a set of handcuffs from the case attached to her waist. She fit this over the wrists of the still-unconscious Trancer, then restrained his legs with a thick cable tie. As Yumiko stood up to contact SFD Headquarters with her smartphone, Minoru watched her in silence. Fragmented memories of his exchange with Liquidizer echoed in the back of his brain. That tiny little sphere is manipulating every one of us, without even realizing it… Liquidizer had said something similar during the fight in Minami-Aoyama. That the Jet Eyes were being manipulated just like the Ruby Eyes. It didn’t seem that way to Minoru, as far as he could tell. However, he didn’t believe that Liquidizer was lying, either. When she pleaded with him to save Trancer, there was real emotion reflected in her eyes. As he looked up at the sky again, he thought he heard the far-off sound of a car engine, echoing like a sob.