Chapter 63

The destruction that followed looked like special effects from a Hollywood action movie. The radiator was crushed, countless hoses and wires ripped every which way, and the engine itself came loose from the chassis and was crushed inward. The battery sent up sparks as it was blown away, which ignited the fuel that had leaked out, producing a billow of orange flames. Though he was in the midst of all this destruction, Minoru didn’t experience any pain, impact, sound, or heat. He simply watched with wide eyes as the entire car was destroyed. When the poor Mazda Demio struck the indestructible protective shell, anchored firmly in midair, it was as if it had run full speed into a steel pillar driven deep into the ground. All of the kinetic energy of the one-ton car, moving at 150 kilometers an hour, recoiled directly into the car itself. Just as the engine room was completely crushed, the car left the ground and flipped in midair. And then Minoru saw the driver crash through the front windshield and go flying forward. Even covered in a frictionless film, there was no way he could cancel out impact that had nowhere else to go. His charcoal suit ripped to shreds, and his necktie flew through the air. The dark liquid dripping from his lips must have been blood—he had apparently sustained massive damage to his internal organs. With its front end completely destroyed, the Demio flipped in midair as it flew over Minoru’s head, then hit the ground roof-first. Sparks flew as it skidded across the pavement and crashed into the highway median strip. Then it was instantly enveloped in enormous flames. Releasing the anchor on his protective shell and standing up, Minoru rushed over to apprehend Lubricator. He dashed past the flaming Demio and looked around the highway. There. About twenty meters away lay a dark figure. Minoru approached him carefully, his shell still active. The man’s expensive-looking suit was in tatters, and he’d lost a shoe, but it was definitely Lubricator. His arms and legs were splayed, and he wasn’t moving. Is he…dead? If so, then it was Minoru who had killed him. His stomach dropped for a moment, but he forced himself to bear it. This wouldn’t be the first time he killed a Ruby Eye. When his first enemy, Biter, had tried and failed to bite through Minoru’s shell, his head had exploded, killing him. Minoru was responsible for that death, and Lubricator probably wouldn’t be the last, either. If anything, he should only be regretting that they hadn’t been able to get any information about the Syndicate out of him. As his thoughts raced, Minoru took another step forward. Just then, Lubricator’s left hand, which was hidden in the shadows of his body, moved like a snake. He pointed the large pistol in his hand at Minoru and fired repeatedly. One of the three shots hit his shoulder, and two hit his heart—or more specifically, the air about two centimeters away from it—before being crushed and bouncing away. The slide on the pistol stopped moving, showing that it was out of bullets, but Lubricator kept trying to pull the trigger. “……” Minoru silently walked forward, took the gun away with his left hand, and crouched down to grab the man’s neck with his right. If he put strength into it, he could easily crush the man’s respiratory tract or break his neck. But of course, he wasn’t going to do that. He simply held on to the man’s neck, staring at the face covered in its strange gray film. Then, abruptly, the film fell away into a coarse powder. Underneath it was the face of a middle-aged man, ordinary in every way except perhaps his thinness. As Minoru looked into his restlessly glittering eyes, he read only one emotion there, an emotion that gave him pause. It was fear. Lubricator—an executive of the Ruby Eye Syndicate on the same level as Liquidizer, a man charged with the role of executioner—was terrified of Minoru. But I’m just the lowest-ranking SFD member, who can’t do anything but protect myself. Still, he strove to keep that bewilderment from showing on his face. If Lubricator wanted to be afraid, then let him. Surely this man had inflicted terror on other humans in the past. A red light reflected off the guardrail to his right. As he turned to look, still holding Lubricator down, he saw countless patrol cars approaching from the other side of the flaming Demio. On top of that, there were five or so regular cars stopped in the left lane. The shards of plastic and metal scattered across the entire road were preventing them from passing. As he wondered how to explain things to the officers, who probably had no idea of the situation, Minoru looked ahead again. The Swift’s taillights were long gone. When it dawned on him that he might never meet that person again, a strange feeling arose in Minoru’s chest, but it was a feeling even he couldn’t identify.