Just after, a black shadow had sprung at him from the left—freezing-cold teeth and breath that was hot like a flame touched the back of his neck. At that moment, he felt the thing in the center of his chest shake violently. Then that strange phenomenon occurred once again. All sound disappeared, his field of vision changed color, and his body floated up just a little. When he felt his attacker’s teeth—which had definitely made indentations in the skin of his neck—being pushed back by some unseen force, Minoru finally sensed what was happening to him. It was a shell. It was a fearsomely hard, invisible shell that could transform at will, and it generated around his body without leaving any gaps. It was about three centimeters thick. It was strange that he couldn’t feel the uniform and the Chesterfield coat he was wearing being pressed inside the shell, but he had no room to think about that. He put all his concentration into making a fist and thrusting it at his attacker. The punch was so clumsy that even he thought it was pathetic, but somehow it connected. Because he felt almost no recoil, he thought he hadn’t done any major damage and attacked the same way once more. This time the man dropped down and dodged him, but he stayed on the floor and rolled away out of the shed—this was where he faced Minoru from now. What in the world was he? Minoru answered his own question. It was obvious. In the man’s chest… No, that wasn’t the only possibility. The man was a human, and that orb was dwelling somewhere in his body. Just as he had imagined so many times, there were others who had encountered it. In other words, the man was one of Minoru’s kind. But there wasn’t even a shred of something resembling camaraderie in the eyes of the man with a shark’s jaw. His eyes flashed only with cold, murderous intent and seething animosity. Glowering at Minoru, who stood motionless, the shark man moved his protruding jaws over and over. It seemed like he was saying something, but enveloped in the invisible shell, Minoru couldn’t hear the sound of the wind in the treetops or the sound of traffic on the Akigase Bridge, let alone what the man was saying. But it wasn’t actually silent. He felt as if he could faintly hear a heavy bass sound like the whump, whump of a machine…or the heartbeat of a massive creature. He didn’t have a clue what the sound was. There was less than five meters between him and the man. In this situation, it would be too dangerous to lose the shell. He had never known how to disarm it in the first place, but still, he felt like he wanted to hear what the man was saying… Minoru inhaled the completely tasteless and odorless air. In it, even the scent of his own body was imperceptible. When he had filled his lungs, it happened. The slightly blue hue that covered his field of vision returned to normal, his body dropped three centimeters, and the bottom of his shoes touched the wet concrete. “…!” The shell disappeared. He almost cried out in surprise but narrowly held it in. If the man realized that Minoru had erased the shell unintentionally, he would certainly be attacked again. But luckily, the shark man seemed to think that Minoru had taken off the shell of his own accord. Moving his mouth again, the man spread his hands in a sophisticated gesture. “…Well, well, are you finally in the mood to listen to what I have to say?” Originally, the man probably had a beautiful voice that carried well, but now he sounded just like an alien trying to imitate a human speaking. His speech sounded strangely warped because the endings of his words were unclear. When Minoru stayed silent, the man inclined his head a bit and went on speaking. “Young man. I’d just like to confirm something… You have it somewhere in your body, don’t you? The red eye?” “…Eye…?” Minoru answered reflexively. The man was clearly referring to the thing buried in Minoru’s chest. But there was just one inconsistency that he couldn’t ignore. The mysterious orb that had descended from the sky three months ago. He had only seen it directly for a few seconds, but Minoru could clearly remember what it looked like even now. The orb’s diameter was a little less than two centimeters. Its surface had a sheen as if it were wet, and a core that was one size smaller was nestled deep under the see-through top layer. Now that the man had mentioned it, that double-layered sphere really did have some similarity to the eye of a living creature. But— “Red…?” That was the only thing that was clearly wrong. The orb that had slipped into Minoru’s chest had a light gray permeable layer and a core so black that it seemed to absorb all light. So did that mean the color of each and every orb was different? To start with, how many actually existed in total…? As if irritated, the shark man stuck his pointed jaw out at Minoru, who was standing stiff as a board. “So which is it? Do you have one, or don’t you?” “I-I have one… Or there is one inside my body…,” Minoru answered in a hoarse voice. The man nodded, eyes narrowed, and pushed Minoru for more. “Three months ago?” Minoru gave a small nod. “…I see.” When the man closed his massive jaws, both corners of his mouth were tugged up into a vaguely threatening smile that would give a child nightmares. “Well, your eye seems to have given you quite a pleasant power. Invisible armor that wraps around your entire body… You had me a bit surprised earlier. But what surprised me more was the fact that someone besides me possesses the eye.” The way he spoke felt amiable, but the murderous intent dwelling in the man’s eyes hadn’t disappeared in the least. No, Minoru couldn’t get the wrong idea. Although he and the shark man before him shared the fact that orbs lived within them, the man definitely wasn’t someone who he could find mutual understanding with. That’s because this man was the one who attacked Tomomi Minowa, brought her to the shed behind them, and bound her hand and foot. If Minoru hadn’t disturbed them…what would this man have done to Tomomi? Usually, there was probably only one thing that a man would do after abducting and tying up a high school girl, but this man wasn’t just a human. He had strangely formed, hugely protruding jaws and enormous teeth with sharp points. Would he have used those teeth to… The man confirmed Minoru’s fearsome imaginings all too easily. “Well, I’ll bite you properly next. No matter how much armor you have, if it only protects your body, I’ll find a way. Don’t fret; I won’t kill you right away. I’ll take my time and bite her ever so slowly while you watch, immobilized. No, no, would it be better to reverse the order…?” “B-bite…? What do you mean, bite…?” Minoru murmured in shock. The man gave another ghastly smile. “Hey, hey, when humans bite something, there’s only one reason for it, right? To eat, of course. That’s what my teeth are there for.” “E-eat… Why would you do something like… Did that eye…get ahold of your brain or something…?” “It’s my own desire, of course. The eye did nothing more than give me the means to do it. I have always wanted to bite people. That’s why the eye came to me… By the way, you’ll be the fifth person I bite. And the girl behind you will be the sixth.” His strange smile got noticeably bigger, exposing several of his vicious, daggerlike teeth from under his elongated lips. “Well, then… Shall we have a taste test?” Licking his lips with a deep red tongue, the man began to close the gap between them little by little. Taking shallow breath after shallow breath, Minoru thought. This guy is seriously planning to bite Minowa and me to death. I have to hurry and get the shell on again. But I still don’t know how to flip the switch. Three days ago, when I was about to make contact with that bike. Two days ago, when the upperclassman got ready to hit me. And just a few minutes ago, when the man in front of me bit my neck. There has to be some common action that I took each of those three times right before the shell appeared. The distance between him and the man had shortened to three meters. …Making a fist… No. He was two meters away now. …Clenching my teeth… No. The man was right before him now, and he opened his vicious jaws as far as they could go. The teeth had a faint metallic luster, and they glinted in the twilight. …That’s it. All those times, and just a little while ago, I breathed like— Minoru sucked in a sharp breath. But just before the ability given to him by the orb was activated… Something that Minoru and the fearsome, strangely formed man hadn’t even imagined occurred. A bam! rent the air, and directly left of the shark man from Minoru’s perspective, a huge amount of leaves that had been piled up on the ground flew into the air. A figure appeared that had definitely not been there a moment earlier. Her long hair fluttered amid the swirling wind. It was a girl wearing a dark blazer. In her right hand, she had a sort of rod. “Nn…!” The shark man swiftly turned back to the right, his eyes wide open as he groaned. At that point, the girl was already thrusting out the black rod she held in her right hand. The moment the tip of it touched the man’s right side, intense pale sparks flashed with a crackle. “Guh!” At the same time the man’s body was swaying back and forth, Minoru let out the breath of air he had just inhaled in shock. The girl standing just a short distance away in her blazer hadn’t leaped down from the treetops or the roof of the shed. Of course, she hadn’t been burrowed in the ground, either. She had simply appeared there in an instant. Her face wasn’t visible, hidden by her long hair. Her blazer that appeared pitch-black in the darkness and her gray pleated skirt were probably the uniform for some school. Her legs were covered in similarly black tights, and her shoes were mid-cut sneakers that went up to her ankles. Her attire was that of a completely normal high school girl. That is, if it weren’t for the black thirty-centimeter-long rod clutched in her right hand. Two electrodes extended from the tip of the rod; it was probably something akin to a so-called stun gun. And although Minoru was completely uninformed about such handheld tools, it was obviously so high-powered that one might think it was illegal. The shark man had taken a severe electric shock, and he lurched violently backward, his tall figure as stiff as a board. But right before he tumbled to the ground, he stuck his left foot out and managed to stay up. With his whole upper body bent backward, the only thing that was visible was the tip of his long jaw. Suddenly, a ferocious roar burst forth from his jaws, which were opened as far as they would go. “Gwaaah!!” If sharks were land animals, that was probably how they would howl. The man’s voice was overflowing with enough rage to shake the air, and Minoru’s whole body tensed up again. Under the man’s black training wear, his muscles writhed. He had been leaning back, but now his body sprung upright as if propelled there. His arms hung down limply, possibly from the effects of the electric shock, and he stuck out his head and flew at the mysterious girl. “…!!” Minoru took in a sharp breath. Her identity was unclear, but the results were obvious: The girl had saved Minoru. So now Minoru had to save her. Or so he thought—but his body didn’t move. His entire body cowered before the shark man’s roar. The jaws with their vicious teeth moved in on the black-haired girl. She tried to pull her body back, pushing off the ground and springing away, but there was no way she could escape. If she was bitten by that jaw, it would take off half her head— A metallic shing! rang out, and sparks flew from the man’s closed teeth. He had bitten only air. Just before his jaws closed, the girl had dropped down, dodging the attack by a paper-thin margin. But the shark man didn’t stop moving. He stuck out his jaws once more, persistently trying to bite her. He opened and closed his jaws again with a shing, shing, but the girl moved left and right and narrowly evaded him. The way she moved was amazing—but she couldn’t avoid the man forever. Why was she not trying to use that stun baton that was stronger than a normal stun gun? Was it because in exchange for its high power output it couldn’t be used continuously? Minoru once again thought that he needed to help her. He struggled to move his stiff, numb right foot forward. While moving ahead awkwardly, he took a deep breath… But at that moment, the girl collapsed to the left. Maybe her feet had slipped on the wet fallen leaves. “Gwah!” The shark man gave a quick roar and loomed over the girl. Grabbing her with both hands, he opened his jaws at more than a ninety-degree angle, took the girl’s delicate neck, and— “…!” Minoru had been focusing everything on launching himself at the man’s back, but he stopped moving involuntarily. For the first time, he was able to see the girl’s face. There wasn’t an ounce of fear in her clean-cut, coolly beautiful face. Her lips were pulled tight, and her deep black eyes stared directly at the monster who was trying to devour her. The girl thrust the stun baton in her right hand deep into the shark man’s mouth, her completely composed expression undisturbed. Bang!! There was another explosive sound. The man’s massive mouth was filled with pale flashes, and his short hair stood completely on end. The electricity went on for more than a full three seconds. After this, even the shark man himself probably wouldn’t be able to move. As the strength slowly slipped from the man’s body, Minoru felt another shiver. The girl in the black blazer had definitely made narrow escape after narrow escape on purpose. The truth was that although she could have escaped with room to spare, she daringly tried to create an opening for the attack. All that was to ensure that the second shock would incapacitate her enemy— Just who was she? Both the levelheadedness with which she handled the strangely formed monster and the superpowered stun baton that couldn’t be bought on the open market made it difficult to believe that she was the student she looked to be. More important was the fact that she had appeared next to the shark man with no warning. That phenomenon…or that ability. Did this girl have it, too? That thing? The moment Minoru thought this was the moment it happened. The inside of the shark man’s mouth was scorched by the electricity, and he completely stopped moving. The thick muscle that bulged from his jaws to his neck convulsed. His long, protruding tongue was charred black, and white smoke escaped from the edges of his mouth. The whites of both his eyes were completely exposed, and he didn’t seem to be conscious. Still, the area around his enormous mouth was trembling like it belonged to a separate creature altogether. His jaws, which had been opened as wide as they could go, closed little by little. Seeing the sharp front teeth lightly bite the stun baton, which was still stuck in the man’s mouth, Minoru groaned in a hoarse voice, “N…no way…” The high school girl’s lovely face tensed as she lay on the ground, as if the current situation went beyond what she had anticipated. Her white hand pressed the switch on the stun baton and there was a third burst of electricity. At exactly the same time… The shark man’s jaws closed with a sharp shing! The stun baton split down the middle and the contents of the batteries spilled out, sending white flame into the air. At that point, the girl’s right hand had already let go of the baton. She stood up with agile movements, putting distance between her and the man. After spitting out the ruins of the flaming baton, the shark man…twisted the charred black edges of his mouth into a sneer. His eyes, which had been rolled back in his head, trembled and his irises reappeared. The small, dot-like pupils glowered at the girl as his voice rung out indistinctly. “What a performance that was…” The man’s body weaved as if his wounds were as serious as they seemed, but he faced the black-haired high school girl and stepped forward. “…I won’t let you get away… I don’t know who you are, but that doesn’t matter now. I’ll bite you… I’ll bite you down to the bone… I’ll bite every last one…” As he said these hideous words, he slowly and steadily closed the gap between them. The girl, who was standing about five meters away, made no attempt to move. She moved her legs slightly apart and knelt, glaring at the approaching shark man. What’re you doing? Hurry up and escape, Minoru prayed desperately, standing in the doorway of the shed. From what he could see, the girl didn’t have any extra stun batons or any other tools to defend herself with. Assuming she had the same orb inside her as Minoru and the shark man—although he didn’t know what color it was—if she could have brought the shark man down with the ability the orb gave her, she probably wouldn’t have started off by using a stun baton. Her mid-cut sneakers were planted firmly on top of the fallen leaves, and the way her gray pleated skirt and long, straight hair fluttered in the wind was natural, so it didn’t seem like she had on the same transparent shell as Minoru. Is she actually…giving up because she thinks she won’t be able to counterattack or escape? Is she just planning to get bitten by the shark man and die like this? The moment he started thinking like this, Minoru clenched both hands hard into fists. He glanced behind him. Tomomi Minowa was on the floor in the back of the storage shed and had seemingly lost consciousness from being so afraid. He felt for her, being bound hand and foot with tape, but she didn’t seem to be injured. He also had the option of picking up Tomomi right now and running out of the park. But the reason Minoru had been able to open the door to this shed was the same reason that he couldn’t escape now. He faced forward again. The shark man and the girl with the blazer were now separated by less than three meters. Minoru filled his chest with air. Consuming a portion of it, he shouted. “Hurry up and run!” Then he completely stopped breathing. He sensed the pressure on his lungs gathering in the center of his sternum. He wasn’t certain. But the black orb responded to Minoru’s will. The rustling of leaves and the midwinter cold vanished. His body floated up slightly. The invisible shell had been activated. His breathing was the switch after all. Still holding his breath, Minoru pushed off from the ground through the shell. He drove his head into the shark man’s left side as the man tried to turn toward him. It should have been a tremendous crash, but all Minoru felt was a very slight decrease in his speed. But for the man, it was the same as being hit by a massive lump weighing well over fifty kilograms. He was sent flying without a bit of resistance and toppled to the ground along with Minoru. Seething with an unnaturally intense rage, the man attempted to shove Minoru aside. As Minoru was desperately holding him down, not breathing started to become painful. Shaking off the fear that the shell might disappear, he let out the carbon gas that had built up in his lungs and inhaled the tasteless and odorless air. He had breathed a bunch of times inside the shell when he was fighting with the man at the entrance of the shed, so this shouldn’t get rid of it. But now he had a new worry. The transparent shell generated at a distance of about three centimeters from Minoru’s body. When he had calculated the surface area of his own body in math class, he remembered that it had been about 1.63 square meters. So was the amount of air inside the shell about forty-nine liters? How many more breaths would it take for him to use up the oxygen it included…? As Minoru considered that, it occurred to him that he should tell the girl to run one more time by just mouthing the words. He turned his face toward her. But the high school girl in the black blazer wasn’t there. He forget for an instant that he was in the middle of a fight, and his eyes widened. Minoru hadn’t taken his eyes off the girl for more than three seconds at most. Wherever she had run to, it should have been impossible for her to cover enough distance to completely disappear from his field of vision. So had she used the same ability as when she appeared? Whether or not the shark man noticed the girl’s disappearance, he was in a mad frenzy, trying to bite into anywhere he could. For the time being, Minoru’s shell was warding off the man’s teeth, but he had no idea how long it would hold. Would the oxygen inside the shell disappear first, or would it shatter like glass before then? Suddenly, a huge amount of fallen leaves flew into the air. Right behind where the shark man was grappling with Minoru, the girl stood. This time, Minoru had clearly seen the moment when she appeared. But still, just as before, he didn’t know how she was moving around. As suddenly as if she had teleported, the high school girl had appeared in a place where no one had been 0.1 seconds earlier. What’s more, she was clutching a black rod in her right hand—a new stun baton. It was just as if she’d gone to get an extra one from somewhere and just now returned. Looking at the scuffle between Minoru and the man, the girl scowled and shouted something. Of course, Minoru couldn’t hear her inside the shell, but he sensed that she was saying something like, “Get out of the way.” “G-got it!” She couldn’t hear him, either, but after yelling that back to her, Minoru tried to get away from the shark man. Just then— Until now the shark man had been raging as if he’d lost all sense, but now the cold light of reason poured from his eyes. The man took Minoru, who had started to get up, and lifted him and the shell high into the air with both hands. Just like that, he flung Minoru with intense force in what was essentially the pro-wrestling suplex move, aiming for the girl standing directly behind them. It seemed like this alone was the only thing the mysterious high school girl hadn’t been expecting. Her narrowed eyes opened wide and she lowered her body to jump out of the way, but she probably wouldn’t make it in time. They were going to collide—! Minoru stopped breathing instinctually, focusing his senses on the orb. Just after, Minoru hit the girl face-first as if he were throwing himself over her. He collapsed to the ground with great force, picking up on a refreshing scent and a delicate softness. He had made it in time to disarm the shell at the last moment, but that had made the impact bigger; he couldn’t get up right away. Although the girl was caught under Minoru, she hadn’t so much as groaned until she yelled sharply right in his ear, “Move now!!” It was the first time he had heard the girl’s voice. It had a clear note to it that reminded him of the sound of an arrow from a Japanese bow. He rushed to jump up, but the bottom of his coat and the girl’s skirt were stuck together under his right knee, so he had trouble getting away. Giving up on standing, he rolled to the left and put some distance between them. As expected, she stood up, keeping her body low as she readied the stun baton in her right hand. It was a graceful movement that brought to mind a panther right before it sprang on its prey. But just after, a look of bitter disappointment came across her face, which was smudged with dirt. What Minoru saw when he rushed to turn around was a black figure cutting its way through the dense bushes at the side of the shed and growing farther away. Occasionally they heard a snap, snap sound; it could’ve been the sound of the shark man biting through branches that were in his way. If she could move in an instant, she should have been able to catch him with that power. Yet the girl remained in a motionless crouch. The sounds of the shark man had faded away and disappeared in no time. There were soccer fields and tennis courts in that direction, so he would soon be out in open space. Was the mysterious girl avoiding being seen by people? A few seconds later, the high school girl picked herself up with a sigh, casually hitched up her skirt, and stowed the stun baton in a holster attached to her right thigh. Without even a glance at Minoru, who was still sitting on the ground, she turned toward the storage shed and stepped forward. As she walked, she held the small watch on her left wrist to her mouth and whispered into it softly. “The Biter escaped. One target to protect, one unexpected target to secure. Bring the first and third kits.” …Could a watch that small have communication capabilities? What’s a kit…? As Minoru thought this half in a daze, he finally remembered just who was in the shed that the girl was headed to. “Oh…Mi…Minowa…” Calling her name in fragments from his tense mouth, he managed to get some strength in his shaking legs and stand up. When Minoru reached the entrance of the shed, the mysterious girl had already taken the passed-out Tomomi Minowa and sat her up. The girl took Tomomi’s pulse with a practiced hand and checked her breathing. “U-um…Minowa, is she…all right?” Minoru asked as he gripped the edges of the door. At that, the girl raised her eyes but didn’t try to respond. Her stern gaze shot right through Minoru, communicating even her hostility. A little while later, the girl’s lips finally moved. “Do you know this girl’s name?” Although he was intimidated by her icy tone, he gave a nod. “Y-yes… We go to the same school…” “Hmph. On top of being a Ruby, you’re a complete idiot, huh? If you target someone from your own school, your identity’s going to get discovered right away. Well, that’s irrelevant now, though.” Minoru couldn’t comprehend what any of her words meant. “…Ruby? Target…?” “Knock off that terrible acting. I mean, you and the Biter fought over the girl and had a falling out.” “…Acting…? The Biter…?” Ninety percent of what she had said was incomprehensible, but he couldn’t let those last words go. Taking a deep breath, he replied in a slightly louder voice, “If by ‘the Biter,’ you mean that monster from earlier, he’s no friend of mine…” Just then— Minoru noticed a faint sound coming from behind him. The sound of shoes on fallen leaves. He quickly came away from the door and turned around, keeping the wall to his back. When he did so, there was a black figure about five meters away. He noticed something after he had begun to inhale, wondering if the man had come back. Compared to the shark man—or the Biter, according to the expression the girl had used—the figure was quite a bit smaller in the vertical sense. Even compared to Minoru, the person was probably ten centimeters shorter. From the figure’s height, he thought it might be another girl, but he was wrong. It was a guy of the same age as the black blazer girl or a little older. He had an olive-colored baseball cap on backward and was wearing a camo-print down vest. On his lower half, he was wearing a loose pair of cargo pants and tough combat boots. Dangling from both his hands were black metal attaché cases. His clothing made him look pretty domineering, but there wasn’t a hint of danger in his face or his expression. His eyes, which gave the impression of being heavily lidded, widened and stared at Minoru steadily—or maybe blankly. Unsure of how to respond, Minoru just stood there. Then the girl walked out of the shed. She had taken off her blazer and was now in a white blouse, but she showed absolutely no sign of being chilly. Scowling at Minoru with a look in her eyes that was still openly wary, she passed by a little way away from him and stuck her left hand out at the small guy. “DD, the third case please.” “Ah, r-right.” The young man named DD nodded and held up the attaché case in his left hand. But right before the girl could take it, he swiftly pulled it back. “…Hey, what’re you playing at?” “Come on, I mean, were you talking about this kid when you mentioned a Ruby to secure? Even though he didn’t tie her up or anything?” “If he tries anything, I’ll take him out right away. Just the fact that he fought the Biter without dying is enough proof. Don’t let him fool you. The mental interference has already begun. He snatched a girl from his school and tried to kill her.” “Come on, seriously? He’s got such a sweet face, though.” “Is that so…? Anyway, who cares. Hurry up and hand it over. I want to take care of this tonight.” “’Kay, got it. You’re just as impatient as always, Yumii…” “Hey, who said you could give me a nickname? It’s Yumiko!” So the girl’s name is Yumiko? It seems like that’s her real name, but DD can’t be his. Or else, with an appearance like that, maybe he’s foreign…? After thinking this, Minoru finally caught on to the fact that they were talking about him. Did “target to secure” mean they were going to capture him? If so, then what in the world did they mean by “take care of this”? As Minoru went on just standing there, Yumiko took the briefcase, spun around, and announced in a cold voice, “If you don’t struggle, we won’t get rough with you. I’m going to give you a shot now, but it’s only a sedative, so you’ll just sleep for a bit. During that time, we’ll do a surgical removal and a memory block somewhere in Tokyo, and then we’ll let you go home tonight.” As she said this, the case opened with a click. Inside were a large syringe and some other instruments side by side, held in place by black cushioning. Unconsciously taking a step away from the case, Minoru asked her in return, “Wh-what…do you mean, surgical removal…?” “Isn’t it obvious?” Yumiko answered in a slightly stronger voice. “Removal of the Third Eye buried somewhere in your body.” “Third…Eye,” Minoru parroted back to her in a mutter. Third Eye. Although this was the first time he had heard the words, even Minoru could easily guess what they meant. The small foreign body lodged in his sternum. The black orb that the shark man called an eye. Since they were using a name like Third Eye, these two must be doing research about and analyzing the orbs. And they were probably doing it as part of an organization, too. Yumiko gave her interpretation of Minoru’s silence in a voice that had softened just slightly. “…The fact that you had a falling out with the Biter means that you haven’t been completely taken over yet, right? But if you just leave things as they are, you’ll start to attack and kill humans indiscriminately like that damn shark, too. Right now, you can still go back to the life you had. The normal life before the Third Eye took you as its host.” Was it because the hostility in her eyes had lessened, albeit just slightly? Even in this situation, Minoru couldn’t help but sense Yumiko’s intense presence again. Her features were solid as if they’d been carved by the inspired knife of a master sculptor. What was particularly striking about her was the color of her eyes, deep like a clear night sky. He ended up staring into their depths like they had just sucked him in. At this, Yumiko knitted her arched brows together suspiciously and returned Minoru’s stare straight on. “You aren’t…actually…?” Almost simultaneously, DD, who was standing behind them, lifted up the brim of his baseball cap with his right hand as he groaned, “Hold on… Is this guy seriously a Ruby? Couldn’t he be a Jet…?” Here was another term Minoru was hearing for the first time. He tilted his head at this, but Yumiko no longer seemed to have any intention of explaining. She turned around and started exchanging quick words with DD. “But you’re the one who declared that there weren’t any more Jets in the Kanto region.” “Technically, I said there were no more awoken Jets. No matter how good my nose is, I can’t distinguish the smells of unwoken Third Eyes.” “If it’s unwoken, then how did he come out of a fight with the Biter uninjured? If he didn’t use his ability, he should’ve been bitten to death in an instant.” “Th-that’s true, but…” Minoru struggled to understand the content of their conversation, which seemed to be about him. Could Ruby and Jet be kinds of orbs—Third Eyes? If so, Ruby was probably the red eye that the shark man talked about, but he couldn’t tell what color Jet referred to. It was also unclear what awoken and unwoken meant. The one thing he could be sure of was that Yumiko, DD, and the shark man known as the Biter all had an orb that had descended from the sky living in their bodies. The Biter’s enormous mouth and Yumiko’s teleportation were powers given to them by a Third Eye, just like Minoru’s shell. No, powers might not be the only thing the Third Eyes gave them. If he believed what Yumiko said, the Biter had tried to kill and eat Tomomi Minowa and Minoru because of the Third Eye’s influence. So then, will I really start attacking people soon, too…? Minoru thought, halfway in a daze. That’s when Minoru finally remembered something important, an “oh!” slipping out of his mouth. Yumiko whirled around again, frowning at him with an obvious wariness. “What is it?” “Um…before we worry about me, Minowa…” Tomomi Minowa was still laid out in the storage shed behind them. Although she didn’t have any major injuries, being kidnapped by a terrifying monster and nearly killed and eaten must have been a terrible mental shock. Minoru turned toward the shed and felt slender but powerful fingers grasp his left arm. “Wait.” Yumiko had closed the gap between them in an instant and was now at close range. In a stern voice that brooked no argument, she said, “Answer my questions honestly. You remember three months ago when you had an encounter with a Third Eye… An orb that came down from the sky, right?” “…Y-yeah.” “What color was the orb that made you its host?” The normal Minoru probably would have thought about what answer the other person would like and said that first. But the moment Yumiko’s eyes stared into him, Minoru told the truth like they were drawing him in. “…Black.” “…” After staring at Minoru for another few seconds, Yumiko gave a small nod. “…I guess you really are a Jet—you can go.” She took her hand off of him and stepped back. From behind them, DD rushed to chime in, “I-is that okay?” “You’re the one who said this kid isn’t a Ruby.” “I-I didn’t swear to that.” “Agh, stop going on and on about it already. Go sniff out the Biter or something.” “Can’t smell him if he doesn’t use his power.” As he listened to this exchange behind him, Minoru returned to the shed at a jog. Tomomi Minowa was laying on top of several piled-up layers of blue sheeting. A black blazer was draped over her body, and although her eyelids were still closed, she didn’t look unwell. The tape binding her hands and knees had already been removed, and she was wearing her socks and shoes again. “…Minowa,” he whispered as he knelt down beside her. Reaching out a hesitant hand, he brought his fingers up to the shoulder of her workout shirt, which peeked out from under the makeshift blanket. Because too many unbelievable events had happened in succession, his head was still completely jumbled up. But there was one thing he was sure of. If Minoru had faced Tomomi more earnestly on the bench in the Western Garden. If he hadn’t let a crying Tomomi leave without saying a word to her. Then Tomomi definitely wouldn’t have been attacked by that fearsome shark man—the Biter. “…It’s…my fault.” It was as if she heard the hoarse voice that he forced from his throat. Tomomi’s eyelashes fluttered and her eyelids slowly rose. Under the weak light of the LED lantern, her brown eyes blinking over and over, her gaze focused on Minoru’s face. Her lips moved slightly and a nearly soundless voice came out. “…U-Utsugi…?” “…Yeah.” Minoru couldn’t do anything but nod. Tomomi continued to stare at him for a little while, but she finally said with a faint smile, “…So, it wasn’t a dream… Utsugi, you…saved me.” “No…I…” He was trying to say, “No, I couldn’t do anything,” but he shut his mouth. His lips felt like they would start trembling, but somehow he forced them into a smile and answered, “Everything’s okay now. You can go home right away.” “…Thank…you…,” she whispered, smiling faintly. Then Tomomi’s eyelids closed once more. Did her heart switch off again, having taken more of a burden than it could bear? Putting his wrist through the shoulder strap of the yellow day pack that had fallen over next to the wall, Minoru put both his arms under Tomomi’s body and picked her up gently along with the blazer. When he came out of the shed, Yumiko and DD were standing there side by side. Yumiko took a step forward and peered at Tomomi’s face. “She looks okay.” “…Yeah.” He nodded. As he was wondering whether he should thank them, she said something unexpected first. “Leave her to us.” “Uh… No, I’ll take her home…” “No, she needs to actually be examined at the hospital. And…she’s seen the Biter’s face. There’s a risk of him going after her again. Didn’t you even think of that?” “…!” The way she said it was harsh, but she was completely right. Minoru didn’t know if the Biter had coincidentally set his sights on Tomomi as she passed through the forest or if he had been targeting her from the start. If it was the latter, there was definitely a possibility that the monster knew everything from Tomomi’s name to where she lived. But that only solidified Minoru’s feeling that it wasn’t right for him to do as he was told and leave Tomomi to them, abandoning his responsibility. “…If so, then shouldn’t you have gone after the Biter instead of giving up so quickly? You can teleport with the power of that thing…the Third Eye, right? So you should’ve been able to catch him easily.” Upon hearing those words, Yumiko’s eyes grew stern. This was the part where Minoru would usually shrink back and turn his face away, but just this once, half in desperation, he met another person’s gaze. “…If I could have, I would have,” Yumiko murmured as if she were spitting the words out. After taking a deep breath and letting it out, she continued in a restrained voice, “We don’t need you to tell us to find the Biter. At that level of damage, he probably won’t be able to leave this area for a while… Well, if you’re intent on taking her home, I guess we can use her as bait to lure the Biter out.” “…That’s not what I…,” Minoru shot back at her reflexively. He bit his lip. Whether or not that’s what he was intending, it didn’t change the fact that Tomomi’s house was dangerous. But still. “…Then can you really say that the hospital you’d take her to is safe?” “Definitely more than her house is, at least. And we’ll guard her, of course.” “…” Minoru once again dropped his gaze to Tomomi in his arms. It seemed more like she was sleeping then passed out. There was definitely something capable about her for someone so petite, possibly because her whole body was well muscled. The weight of a human with a life. But Minoru knew that weight could be easily lost on the slightest whim of fate. “…What explanation will you give her family?” “Mm, some deviant started to attack her, but people happened to be passing by, so she’s okay…or something.” The one who answered was not Yumiko, but DD. Giving a quick shrug of his shoulders under the down vest, he went on talking. “This isn’t our first case like this. We have the know-how to put her back in her old life after we get her properly protected and treated. That includes psychological care, too.” “But if you say some deviant did it, won’t the police come to ask what happened…? And can you keep the police or the media under control? …Just who are you guys anyway…?” Minoru had a feeling that Yumiko and DD were backed by some sort of organized entity, and he apprehensively asked them as much. At this, DD gave a wry smile and shook his head. “Mm, we basically work for the authorities, but we don’t have the power to influence the police or the media. We can’t tell you details unless there’s a formal request for you to work with us and you fill out a bunch of paperwork, though.” “Request to…work with you?” “Guess that’s how it’ll probably end up… Here in Japan right now, there’s a mountain of Ruby Eyes with homicidal impulses. The Biter from before is one of ’em. It’s assumed that the majority of the rapidly increasing missing persons around the country are Ruby victims. By the way, the reason we call them Rubies is that the color of the parasitic orb is red.” After a pause, DD continued to explain. “On the other hand, there are many fewer of us Jet Eyes with black orbs than the Rubies. You’re probably the last identified Jet in the Kanto region. It depends on what kind of ability you have, but I think there’s no doubt you’ll be asked to work with us. By the way, Jet isn’t like the jet from a jet engine. It’s from the jet gemstone.” “…” Minoru stared at DD’s face blankly for a moment, then dropped his eyes to Tomomi again. So there really were two kinds of orbs. The red ones were Ruby Eyes, and the black ones like the one buried in Minoru’s chest were Jet Eyes. Humans who had Ruby Eyes as parasites would start to attack other humans like the Biter did. Humans like Yumiko and DD who possessed Jet Eyes were put into an organization by the authorities—in other words, the government—and were fighting the Ruby Eyes… It was hard to believe. It was more than that; it was absurd. Minoru raised his head and asked in a hoarse voice, “…Where did the Third Eyes come from?” At this, the small young man made the most serious expression he had since Minoru met him, pointing the index finger of his right hand straight up. Following it, Minoru looked up. He saw just a few stars twinkling in the gray sky above the treetops. …Space? …He was saying that…mysterious objects from space took humans as their hosts, gave them supernatural abilities, and made them attack people or protect them? Give me a break, Minoru groaned inwardly. If Minoru accepted that, the normal life he’d made the maximum effort to protect would be blown even further away from him. Most importantly, it wasn’t like Minoru had the qualifications to join some organization that battled evil. After all—on that day eight years ago, he’d kept his eyes closed and his ears covered as he hid alone under the floor. And he’d been the lone survivor, sacrificing his beloved parents and sister. “Hey, you all right, kid? You don’t look so good.” At the sound of DD’s voice, Minoru widened his eyes with a start. I’m not here. I’m not anywhere. He chanted this incantation in his mind, doing his best to sever the pathways of memories that were beginning to connect. “Oh… It’s nothing,” he answered, giving his head a quick shake. He turned his eyes to Yumiko on the right, her mouth still tight. They couldn’t tell him details about their organization and he didn’t really want to know, but Minoru was at least certain that they could do things he couldn’t. And he was certain that he couldn’t be near Tomomi Minowa anymore. “…I got it. Please take care of Minowa,” Minoru said as if he were whispering, holding the sleeping Tomomi out in front of him gently. Yumiko’s arms looked delicate at first glance, but she accepted Tomomi effortlessly. Minoru passed the day pack he had hanging on his right hand over to DD. “I think Minowa’s student planner is in there.” “Understood. We’ll use it to contact her guardians.” “…Please do.” Lowering his head a little, Minoru picked up his messenger bag, which he had dropped a little way away. When he just kept walking, a sharp voice called to him. “Hey, where do you think you’re going?” “Home,” he said, standing still but not turning his head as he gave this brief answer. “Home… You obviously can’t. Weren’t you listening to all the things DD just said?” Minoru had expected to hear this to a certain extent, but he shook his head as he continued to face forward obstinately. “It’s not like there’s anything else I can do. You said so yourself, didn’t you?” “Even if there’s nothing for you to do here, there’s a mountain of things we’re going to have you do from now on.” A flustered DD interrupted Yumiko’s sharp words. “H-hang on, hang on, let’s be a little more peaceful about this, Yumii. I mean, we just found a new friend.” “Calling this guy my friend already is…” “Whoa, just be quiet for a sec, I’m beggin’ you!” he shouted. DD ran over the fallen leaves with a rustle and came around in front of Minoru. Under his impressively knitted eyebrows, he put on a smile as if trying to smooth things over. “Um, so, there are a lot of things you want to know, right? If you come with us, we’ll tell you as much as we can.” “…” He definitely did feel like he wanted to know more detail about Third Eyes and the organization the two of them belonged to. But more than that, the resistant feeling that he didn’t want to be here anymore was stronger. Minoru was the one who had created an opportunity for Tomomi Minowa to be attacked by the Biter. Even if she was thankfully unhurt in the physical sense, she probably had deep wounds in her heart. The fact that he had fallen silent and just let Tomomi leave all those minutes ago… No, the fact that he had talked to her for so long on that embankment along the Arakawa River three days ago was something he would never stop regretting no matter how long he regretted it for. I can’t stand for anyone else to get hurt because of me. There’s no way, he whispered internally. “That’s okay.” “Huh?” DD blinked as if he was actually surprised at Minoru’s answer. “You’re saying…you don’t wanna know? I mean, all of this is completely unbelievable as far as common sense goes.” “…Common sense is nothing but an illusion. Everything happens when it’s going to happen.” “Wh-whoa… You’re getting pretty philosophical for such a young guy…” At that moment, he heard a voice from off to the left that sounded like it had lost patience with this exchange. “Enough already. Just use the stick.” DD’s eyes popped out as if startled, and Minoru noticed his right hand twitch. The stick was probably the stun baton that Yumiko had been using. Now that she mentioned it, Minoru had the feeling that the left side of DD’s camo-print down vest bulged out just a little more than the right side. Staring at DD’s put-upon face, Minoru prepared himself to stop breathing at any time. Then Yumiko’s cold voice rang out again. “That’s how we should treat guys like this, guys who get a look on their face like it’s got nothing to do with them even after you’ve told them about the victims of the Ruby Eyes.” “N-no, no, no, we can’t be rough with a Jet like us…” “Like us? Don’t make me laugh,” she spat. The sound of resolute footsteps continued. Yumiko came to a halt on Minoru’s left side, very close to him. She ordered in a commanding voice, “Face me.” “…” After resisting for about two seconds, he turned back to the left. Still holding Tomomi, Yumiko gave Minoru a piercing gaze, her eyes like crystallized, superheated flames. As he reflexively averted his eyes, Minoru wondered in the corner of his mind whether he’d ever looked straight into another person’s eyes like that even once. “…You lost your right to choose the moment the Jet Eye entered your body,” she said, her ringing voice strong in his ears. “Even at this very moment, Rubies are targeting innocent people. You have a duty to go on fighting until all the Rubies are wiped out!” For Minoru, who always avoided situations where other people would reprimand him, Yumiko’s words were like a nail being driven into his chest. But amid that pain, there was also a slight rebellious feeling toward Yumiko’s overbearing tone. Minoru clenched both his fists and forced a rare protest from his throat. “…It’s not like I accepted that thing because I wanted to. This is the first I’ve heard of Jets and Rubies. I didn’t know about it, any of it.” “And that’s why I’m telling you to be ashamed that you didn’t know and to work with us to annihilate the Rubies!” “It has nothing to do with me. People who want to fight should just fight. Now I’m going home.” Thinking that he would only increase his painful memories if he continued this conversation, Minoru passed by Yumiko on her left and headed out of the forest. But Yumiko blocked him after he had taken a step in that direction, giving DD an order in a voice colder than the December night air. “Use the stick on this idiot right now. We’re bringing him along to headquarters even if we have to do it by force.” “L-like I said, that’s kinda risky,” he answered. His tone was as light as always, but there was a hint of anxiety in his voice. “If we do somethin’ like that, there’s no way we can persuade him anymore. I mean, the kid’s ability is still an unknown. Somehow or other, he came out of a fight with the Biter uninjured. We gotta respect what he wants here, so let’s talk things over another day…” “If he sees the recordings at headquarters, he won’t be able to say such naive things anymore. Like how courageously Sanae fights, and she’s way smaller than him…!” There was a name he hadn’t heard before in Yumiko’s words, which dripped with rage. But Minoru no longer had room to pay attention to it. Driven by an irritation that was unexpected even to him, he spit out in a low voice, “If you want to know, I’ll tell you now. If I use my ability, you won’t be able to hear my voice, and I won’t be able to hear yours. It creates a transparent shell that nothing can pass through. That’s why that sort of weapon won’t work on me.” “Whoa… Now I get it.” His expression turning interested, DD tugged at the brim of his baseball cap and bellowed, “So that’s how you kept from getting injured even when that Biter guy chewed on you, huh? Those teeth can bite people down to the bone, though, so that’s a pretty major power if it can block them, yeah. This is… Mm… Hey, let’s back off here for now. If it’s like the kid says, then the stick definitely won’t be any help.”
Chapter 6
46 min read