Chapter 55

“…At any rate, just be extra-careful tonight. And make sure you’re not late for our meeting time tomorrow. I have to get ready, so I can’t come and pick you up!” “R…right. But the place Liquidizer chose is a bit far away, so if I head over right after school, I’ll just barely make it in time…” “Then just leave school early or something. You can’t be late, no matter what! We have to make sure there’s nobody nearby waiting to ambush us or anything like that before the meeting.” “…Right.” Yumiko nodded briskly, then slung her slim legs over her bike. Starting the engine, she lowered the helmet’s shield over her face. With a final wave, she took off at a high speed down the road. Her jet-black supersport vanished into the dark within moments. Minoru watched until her special taillights were out of sight, then started walking toward the station’s bike parking area. It was 5:07 p.m. Though the evening was still young, he already felt like it had been a very long day. But tomorrow would be the real challenge. The smartphone Liquidizer gave him contained only one phone number. When he sent a short text that they wanted to accept the deal, Liquidizer simply responded with a time and place: 6:00 p.m., in the central plaza of Yoyogi Park. Minoru had never been there before, but he knew it was close to Harajuku Station and Meiji Shrine. Minoru had no idea why she had chosen that particular location. Yumiko said there was nothing but grass there, so perhaps she was just being cautious of an SFD ambush, but Minoru and company had to be equally careful. Liquidizer had the ability to set a delayed liquefaction trap, but he doubted she could possibly liquefy an entire park. Hopefully, this meant they wouldn’t fall for the same trick that caught them in Minami-Aoyama. Whether the decision to agree to the deal was right or wrong, Minoru couldn’t say. All he knew for sure was that if and when they reported it to Professor Riri later, she would be absolutely furious. They might be punished with house arrest or a drop in pay or, in the worst-case scenario, fired. Minoru had given a lot of thought to this possibility, but he decided he wanted to prioritize Olivier’s decision above all else. He’d been worried nonstop about his captured sister as he fought for more than two months now. Just how much anxiety and anguish was he hiding behind that aloof exterior? In this situation, where he couldn’t rely on the police or even the 3E Committee for help, it would be beyond cruel to tell him to reject the glimmer of hope he’d finally been offered. Minoru had no doubt that he, too, would do anything if it meant he could bring his sister Wakaba back to life. “…This is the right choice, isn’t it, Wakaba?” Minoru looked up at the sky, but of course there was no response. He blinked a few times before walking through the pedestrian gate of the bicycle parking area. The night passed without further incident. Minoru ate dinner with Norie, did his homework, took a bath, and went to bed. Early the next morning—Wednesday, January 7, at 5:15 a.m.—Minoru was awoken by the buzzing of his phone. Grabbing the smartphone by his pillow, Minoru gazed sleepily at the screen for a moment before he realized it was a phone call and not just his alarm. The name on the screen was…Tomomi Minowa. Minoru woke himself up in the span of two seconds, then pressed the accept icon. “Minowa?” he asked, pressing the phone to his right ear, but she didn’t answer at first. Has she gotten mixed up in another incident…? As he was about to leap out of bed, she finally responded. “…Sorry to call you so early, Utsugi.” Upon hearing her voice, Minoru breathed a small sigh of relief. “No, no, it’s fine. I was about to wake up anyway.” It was true: His alarm was set for 5:30. For the past five years, he’d been getting ready in fifteen minutes and going out for a run along the bank of the Arakawa River nearly every morning; recently, meeting up with Tomomi on the Hanekura Bridge if she contacted him and running together had become part of that tradition. Normally, though, she didn’t contact him until 5:40 at the earliest, and it was always through a messaging app, never a phone call. “…Is everything all right?” Minoru asked hesitantly. Once again, Tomomi fell silent. As he pressed the phone closer to his ear so he wouldn’t miss a word, Minoru could hear the sound of uneven breathing. It took him a few seconds to realize she was crying. “Minowa…” Minoru’s breath caught as he repeated her name. Finally, she responded again. “Utsugi…I… Something’s wrong with me.” “Wrong…? What’s the matter?” “It’s like…like I’m not myself…” Choking out the words, Tomomi started crying again. This is serious, Minoru thought. “Where are you right now?!” She didn’t respond right away, but after a few painful seconds, she mumbled “Near my house” amid her sobs. “Near her house”—that meant she was outside. The temperature was probably close to freezing. He was about to tell her to go back inside right away, but then he realized there must be a reason she couldn’t do so. “I…I’ll be right there, so just try to stay warm while you wait!” he said desperately. “……Okay.” With that, the phone call was cut off. Minoru jumped out of bed, threw off the sweats he was wearing as pajamas, and changed into his running wear. Being careful not to wake Norie, who was asleep in the next room over, he went down the stairs as quickly as he could, pulled on his shoes impatiently, and dashed out of the house. He had just been to Tomomi’s house four days ago. Though he hadn’t realized it before, she lived only about a third of a mile away in a straight line. Reaching the nearby Kamo River, he sped south along its unpaved bank. The sky was still mostly dark, and there were no lights on the path, but his Third Eye–enhanced vision and strength allowed him to run at top speed. Soon he came upon the next bridge, where he moved to the road and headed east. Tomomi’s house was just past the elementary school, then right around the next corner— “…!” Spotting a blur of green in the corner of his vision, Minoru skidded to a halt. A small figure was crouching in front of the elementary school gate, hugging her knees to her body. She had short, fluffy hair and a lime-green windbreaker. Minoru didn’t need to see her face to know at a glance that it was her. Taking a deep breath of the cold air to steady himself, Minoru slowly walked over to her. “…Minowa?” When he called out to her, her slim shoulders trembled a little. She didn’t seem to be crying anymore, but she didn’t move to lift her head up, either. Minoru hesitated for a moment, then sat down next to Tomomi against the black gates. I have to say something, he thought, but his words just wouldn’t come. He’d never had a girl ask him for help like this before; even if he had, the old Minoru from before last fall wouldn’t have wanted to get involved. He didn’t think he’d changed that much in just a few months, but Tomomi had become a dear friend to him. If she was suffering somehow, he wanted to help her…even if it meant making more dreaded memories. Instead of speaking, Minoru took off his windbreaker and put it over Tomomi’s shoulders. All he was wearing underneath was a cold-resistant undershirt, but between the way he’d run here at top speed and his Third Eye, he didn’t feel the cold at all. They sat in silence for a while, but finally Tomomi’s hand moved, pulling Minoru’s windbreaker tighter around herself. A puff of white breath lingered in the predawn darkness. “…I’m surprised you were able to find me so fast. All I said was that I was near my house.” Her voice still sounded a little choked. Minoru, naturally, responded completely artlessly. “Well, it was on the way… Plus, the color of your coat stands out.” “I really like the color green. I just got this as a Christmas present… Normally, wearing it gets me excited to run, but…lately…” Tomomi finally raised her head, looking up at him. Fresh tears were welling in her round eyes. “…It took me five whole minutes to run here from my house.” “What…?” Minoru blinked and looked around. Across from the school gates where they were sitting was a large temple, and Minowa’s house was right on the other side. It was probably less than three hundred meters away, even by way of the path, so it shouldn’t take five minutes even to walk here. “…Are you not feeling well? You shouldn’t push yourself…” He was about to ask if she’d caught a cold when it finally occurred to him. Tomomi had mentioned this yesterday morning when they ran into each other on the way to school. That she’d been feeling strange lately, not wanting to run even though she loved it. “…Is it what you told me about yesterday?” Tomomi nodded. “Uh-huh. I wanted to run with you this morning no matter what…so I managed to get out of the house, but with every step, my legs and my body just felt heavier and heavier, and it got harder even to walk… By the time I got here, I couldn’t even stand up anymore…” “…” Shocked into silence, Minoru looked automatically at the girl’s legs. It was impossible to tell through her clothes, but if what she said was true, then it probably wasn’t a physical issue. If she was going about her regular life as usual, but her legs started getting heavy only when she was running, then it was probably a mental block of some kind, like the “little slump” she’d mentioned. Still, he wasn’t sure exactly what to do. Maybe she should talk to her coach, or upperclassmen from the track-and-field club, or even the school counselor? But would that really solve the problem? As he struggled to find the right words, Tomomi lowered her head again, pulling her knees closer to her body. “If this really is a slump…I didn’t know they could be so illogical. I really do love running…and I thought I’d started to love it even more since we started jogging together in the mornings. It’s like this isn’t really my body…” “Minowa…” Overwhelmed with frustration at his own inability to offer her any advice, Minoru held his breath. Before he knew it, he was reaching out with his right hand and placing it on Tomomi’s back. Under his palm, he felt her muscles tremble for a moment, but she soon leaned over, resting her body against Minoru’s. This meant he was now embracing her around the shoulder, but Minoru didn’t move. He suddenly had the feeling that someone had done the same thing for him, and soon he remembered why. When he had just joined the SFD, Olivier had once punched Minoru in the face. He was angry because, although Minoru’s mistake had led to the Igniter claiming another victim, some part of him still seemed to think it wasn’t his problem. Though now he felt like the punch was well deserved, he couldn’t accept that at the time, and he ended up curling up inside his protective shell in the basement parking lot of SFD Headquarters. Then Yumiko showed up. I still believe in you, she said. I believe in the person who came running to save me from Biter. And just for a moment, she held Minoru in a tight embrace. It was probably that show of kindness that had kept Minoru from quitting the force. “I like running with you, too, Minowa.” He tilted his head toward Tomomi’s as she huddled against his right side. “I’ve been running on the bank of the Arakawa River almost every morning for the past five years, but the truth is, I never particularly liked running. I was just doing it because it was a way to stop myself from thinking about things. But…ever since I started running with you, I’ve noticed a lot of things. Like how beautiful the river is at dawn, and how delicious water tastes when you drink it at the turnaround point of a run…and how much fun it is to run with someone else. If… If you feel the same way…as long as you hang on to that feeling, then I’m sure you’ll be able to run again soon.” It was a baseless declaration, but Tomomi pressed her head into Minoru’s shoulder and nodded twice, then three times. “Yeah… Yeah, you’re right. I have fun running with you, too. I like running at practice and in races and stuff, but there’s something special about those times… On days where we were going to run together, I always got excited before I even left the house. So how…? Why…?” Hearing the anguish in her voice, Minoru thought Tomomi was about to cry again. But instead she pulled away from him, put her hands on her knees, and started to stand up. Her thin body shook as she rose, so Minoru hurriedly supported her. Once she was shakily on her feet, Minowa took a long, deep breath; stepped forward; and turned around. Holding out the black windbreaker Minoru had laid over her shoulders, she smiled at last. “Let’s run, Utsugi.” “What…?” Minoru’s brow furrowed as he accepted the windbreaker. “You really shouldn’t push yourself, though. We can run together as much as we want once you’re feeling better…” “I think running with you will make me feel better. Don’t worry… I’m feeling a little better now.” Tomomi still looked pale, but that might have just been the effects of the LED streetlight, so Minoru couldn’t tell if she seemed ill or not. Feeling as if he had no other choice, Minoru pulled on the windbreaker and zipped it up. “All right…but let’s take it slow today, okay? Don’t overdo it.” “Uh-huh!” Tomomi nodded and started warming up. Minoru stretched alongside her, glancing at the sky to the east. It would probably be more than a half hour before the sun rose, but he decided to turn back at the five-kilometer mark today instead of the usual ten. “I’ll match your pace, all right, Minowa?” “Thanks… Okay, let’s go, then.” Tomomi smiled and started jogging with a little hop. Once they reached the road, she gradually increased her speed. Her pace and form looked perfectly normal, and Minoru was just thinking that it must be a purely mental problem after all when it happened. They’d only run about twenty meters, but Tomomi’s stride suddenly broke down. Her upper body wobbled, and she tried to keep her balance, but she tumbled down on the side of the road. “Careful…!” As Minoru cried out, he dashed across the ground as quickly as he could. Stretching his left arm between her and the asphalt, he just barely managed to catch her in time. Crouching on one knee, he held Tomomi in both arms, speaking to her frantically. “Minowa! What’s wrong, Minowa?!” But Tomomi’s eyes were closed, and she didn’t respond. Quickly tilting his head close to her lips, he felt her faint breathing, but it sounded far too frail for only having run a few seconds. When he touched her cheek, it was shockingly cold. This didn’t seem like she’d fainted from dehydration or low blood pressure. “Ambulance…” Muttering to himself anxiously, Minoru was reaching into his pocket for his phone when he realized they were still just steps away from Tomomi’s house. Minoru gently lifted her in his arms and, being careful not to jostle her around too much, broke into a run.