The Igniter

by Reki Kawahara

  Even with Suka’s willpower, he needed three hours to put the smoldering anger in the pit of his stomach to rest. Looking past the potted plants on his veranda, Suka watched as the winter sky darkened with every minute, repeatedly taking large breaths.

  According to today’s plan, Suka thought, after burning his prey in Shinjuku, he would easily evade the black hunters who would come after him until he got to a safe location. However, by making three mistakes, he was not only discovered, but also they saw his face, and he had let them get away.

  Back then, instead of concentrating oxygen in the engine of the motorcycle and causing it to explode, he moved oxygen away from the motorcycle in order to asphyxiate the black riders. However, his oxygen-deprivation attack took time to have its full effect and there was nothing he could do to change that. Taking advantage of that opening, that young girl had used her power of acceleration to escape. He had no idea she would do something as outrageous as making the motorcycle leap up into the sky, vanishing from his sight in an instant.

  Realizing that his breathing was getting shallower due to his anger and frustration, Suka attempted to breathe in more of the oxygen being produced from his plants and calm himself down.

  “Fighting at close range is nothing short of barbaric,” he said to himself, as he felt his anger finally cooling down.

  Launching long-range combustion attacks was indicative of the true nature of his ability, and using that ability in that way was what fate wanted for him.

  To raze this filthy civilization with cleaning flames.

  That was why he had been given a new life.

  Relaxing his arms and letting out a deep breath, Suka slowly looked to the side. On the wall of his unlit living room was a large detailed color map of the Tokyo metropolitan area.

  On the map, the metal heads of pushpins gleamed red in the lingering light from the window. Suka walked over to the map and pulled out one pin out of extras he had set aside in the margins, and then pressed it in deep to mark the spot where today he had called forth his cleansing flames in West Shinjuku.

  That one was the ninth.

  Taking three steps back, Suka looked at the map. The orderly placed nine pins created a beautiful sign in the center of the sinful city that was Tokyo.

  Soon those idiotic humans will realize, he thought, that this giant symbol would mark the beginning. It would mark the beginning of the divine punishment about to be inflicted on this polluted, overoxidized civilization.

  “Heh-heh, heh-heh-heh,” Suka chuckled, finally forgetting his anger, smiling with deep wrinkles on both sides of his mouth.

  The fact that the black hunters had seen his face was certainly something to worry about, but there was no way that they would be able to track him to his apartment.

  After all, Ayato Suka was completely and utterly dead.

  “I’m sorry, Norie. We just can’t seem to finish this group research project, and it’s due tomorrow…”

  “Hmm… Well, if that’s the case, I suppose there’s nothing else you can do. Make sure you thank the parents of the kid whose house you’re staying at, okay? Also, even though it’s to do homework, make sure you don’t stay up too late.”

  “O-okay, I know… Tomorrow, I’ll go straight to school from here.”

  “All right, roger that. Go and do your best okay?”

  While feeling guilt for telling his adoptive sister such a bald-faced lie, Minoru took his smartphone away from his ear.

  To be honest, Minoru had planned on returning to Saitama as soon as the meeting was over. However, after being punched by Olivier and talking to Professor Riri, he gave up on going home that day.

  It wasn’t that Minoru had suddenly become obstinate or stubborn, but at the very least he felt that he couldn’t go home until he atoned in some way for his mistake.

  However, there was only one thing that he could do right now and that was dig up the memories he had buried deep within his mind.

  Sitting with his back to the wall and hugging his knees in the fifth-floor room of SFD Headquarters, Minoru closed his eyes to think.

  He thought of Igniter’s face, which he saw through the faceplate of his motorcycle helmet and the glass window of the taxi. Before it twisted with a raging intent to kill, it was a somewhat expressionless, teacherish face of a man who had begun to show his age.

  It couldn’t have possibly been that Minoru had just passed him by somewhere on the street. After all, Minoru never looked at the faces of people walking by. He was also sure that Igniter wasn’t, for instance, a teacher who worked at his old elementary school or something like that, because if he remembered someone from back then, he would have recalled more than just the front of his expressionless face.

  This was the only time that Minoru regretted his policy of acquiring as few memories as possible. Putting his chin on his knees, he pressed his fist against his forehead.

  Just where did I…? he thought.

  “…I don’t think that there’s any reason for you to feel this guilty about what happened.”

  Suddenly, Minoru heard a voice from above and immediately raised his head.

  It was Yumiko, who had changed into slim jeans and a sweater, holding canned soft drinks in both of her hands.

  Without looking straight at Minoru, Yumiko continued, stumbling along in her speech.

  “Well, I mean…it’s awful that the taxi driver died, but…not even Olivier is saying that you’re to blame for that. Igniter is the one who killed him and the Third Eye that’s infected him. Plus, the number of civilian casualties due to the actions of Ruby Eyes is easily more than a hundred, and that’s only counting the data we’ve confirmed. If you plan to stay on as a member of the SFD… Though I really hate to say this…if you worry too much about each and every person sacrificed…it’ll break you.”

  “…O-okay…,” Minoru replied, nodding without looking up.

  The only reason Minoru had his head in his hands was that he was trying to recall his memories, but he couldn’t say that now and just took the canned soft drink that Yumiko offered to him. After a quick thank-you, he pulled the tab on the can and drank the cool soft drink, his thoughts still wandering absentmindedly.

  Because of Minoru’s mistake, that taxi driver, who otherwise wouldn’t have been killed, became Igniter’s newest victim. That was an undeniable fact. However, even though Minoru had been punched by Olivier and consoled by Yumiko, he didn’t really feel any guilt at all.

  Minoru thought back to what Professor Riri said before, “The mental state of someone who does not worry is defective.”

  Does that mean I’m abnormal? Minoru thought. If so, is it because of my Third Eye? Or was I that way before? But Minoru didn’t get much further than that, as Yumiko sat down right beside him.

  Skillfully opening the tab of the can with one hand and taking a gulp, Yumiko hesitantly turned to Minoru.

  “Umm… About before… I’m sorry.”

  “Huh? Before? Do you mean during the meeting?” Minoru asked.

  “No! I meant…on the roof…,” Yumiko continued.

  “The roof…,” Minoru repeated before finally remembering what happened during his close call with death.

  After being subjected to Igniter’s oxygen-deprivation attack, Minoru was unable to breathe on his own, so Yumiko used her own lungs to provide the air to save Minoru. In other words, mouth-to-mouth…

  Minoru leaned back and hit himself against the concrete wall, and Yumiko continued her hasty speech.

  “I didn’t have any other choice. If I had a manual resuscitator or something, I would have used that but had only prepared the motorcycle with light equipment… I’ll make sure to have one next time.”

  “D-don’t worry about it, I mean… If you didn’t do that, I would have died,” Minoru said.

  “Well, then.” Yumiko lightly nodded. “Let us both forget that that incident ever happened, okay? Especially the part where…”

  “The part where you cried?” ask
ed Minoru, remembering when Yumiko had hunched over with her shoulders shaking.

  Yumiko glared at Minoru. “Yes, that. Now forget it. Right now.”

  “O-okay…,” replied Minoru, nodding several times.

  But just then, Minoru felt that stimulation of his memories again. He was surprised because this should have nothing to do with Igniter’s face, but somewhere in his mind he was connecting that face with the act of artificial respiration.

  “Artificial…respiration…,” Minoru muttered, and Yumiko suddenly went red in the face.

  “Didn’t I just tell you to forget what happened?!” she yelled.

  “Huh? Oh no, that’s not what I meant. But I mean…isn’t artificial respiration usually done on someone who was drowning? Instead, we did it on top of a tall building and…,” said Minoru, trying to both make a proper excuse and gather his thoughts.

  Artificial respiration was usually done when there was an accident in the water and someone was drowning… For example, if someone jumped into water on purpose, in order to…

  “Th-that’s it!!” Minoru yelled, jumping up, as Yumiko looked at him, startled.

  But before Minoru could even notice Yumiko, in the back of his mind he saw Igniter’s face, in black-and-white halftones. He hadn’t seen him directly, he had seen a picture of him. A picture in a newspaper article.

  “Are you sure this is him?” Riri asked.

  Minoru stared at the low-resolution black-and-white photograph displayed on the eighty-inch monitor in front of him and nodded deeply.

  “Yes, this is his face. This is Igniter.”

  As it was an enlarged photo from the digital version of a newspaper article, it wasn’t very clear, but the looks of that intelligent-looking man and the signs of his age perfectly matched the person in Minoru’s memories from just a few hours before.

  “I see. Good work, Mikkun!” Riri said, vigorously turning around before looking down at her tablet and summarizing the content of the newspaper article for Minoru and Yumiko.

  “This man’s name is Yousuke Nakakubo, and he is fifty-nine years old. His residence is located in Kaki-no-ki-zaka in the Meguro district of Tokyo, but…he probably doesn’t live there anymore. Three months ago his landscaping company was faced with insolvency, and he attempted a murder-suicide with his wife. He drove his car off Ooi Pier and into the sea. However, when his car was pulled out of the water, only his wife and child’s bodies were found. I guess this means he was alive.”

  “Three months ago…,” Yumiko whispered, and Professor Riri nodded.

  “Yes…it’s quite the coincidence. However, it seems unlikely that he attempted suicide after he was infected by a Third Eye, as he would have to overthrow the Third Eye’s will to do so. Which means…that he was probably infected after he escaped from the sinking car. That would explain his power as well.”

  “Huh…? What do you mean?” Minoru asked.

  Riri lifted a finger and began to explain. “Third Eyes take their hosts’ psychological state, their trauma or obsessions, their desires or attachments, and use them as a mold to create their supernatural powers. For example, in the case of gourmet Hikaru Takaesu, code name “Biter,” he had been abused by his mother and lost more than half of his real teeth. Therefore, his Third Eye gave him a strong jaw and teeth that could bite through metal.”

  Riri then turned back around, looking up at the monitor, before continuing.

  “The reason Igniter gained the frightening power to manipulate oxygen is not unrelated to the fact that he almost drowned. The fear and attachment to life and other psychological energy he must have felt in coming so close to death must have been enormous. Of all the Ruby Eyes that we have fought against and disposed of, not one had such an acute fear of death at the source of their power and that probably goes the same for us Jet Eyes.”

  Pausing for a moment, Riri turned back around.

  The young strategic commander looked at both Minoru and Yumiko with her large eyes for an instant, but then looked down. Her cute voice was filled with a melancholy unfitting of her years.

  “…In other words, if you just compare the strength of our powers, none of the forward-acting members of the SFD can match Igniter. This…may require us to bring Chief Himi along with us…”

  When Minoru heard Himi’s name mentioned, he blinked a few times. Chief Himi’s power to seal other people’s memories was certainly astounding, but what use would it have in battle? Minoru wondered.

  However, Yumiko, who was next to Minoru, shook her head with a stern look on her face.

  “No, that won’t be necessary. I can deal with him alone,” she said.

  “But…,” Riri started, her voice full of concern, but Yumiko, “Accelerator,” cut her off.

  “I’ll be fine. Next time I’ll take care of him for sure.…I will go and investigate Igniter’s residence. There may be clues there to his current hideout.”

  Yumiko then turned and walked quickly toward the elevator, her hair trailing behind her.

  “Um… I’ll go with her,” Minoru said, quickly running after Yumiko as Riri told them to be careful.

  When Yumiko and Minoru got off the elevator on the basement floor, they walked into the dim parking garage. Minoru saw the black minivan that he’d seen during the fight with Biter, as well as a small truck and Yumiko’s motorcycle.

  Taking a leather jacket off a hook on the concrete wall, Yumiko glanced back at Minoru. He thought that Yumiko would say something like, “I’m not bringing you along. You’re just going to slow me down,” but instead of saying anything, she just tossed him a helmet.

  After Minoru put the helmet on, Yumiko also threw over a riding jacket with protective inserts, so Minoru took off his Chesterfield coat to put it on. This time, Minoru made sure he was equipped with his compressed air cylinder in his pocket, and after he finished doing so, Professor Riri’s voice came in over the intercom.

  “I’ll send you Igniter’s old address. I’m also currently checking for any information on his real name with the department of public safety, the police, and the fire department, but I don’t expect to find much.”

  Immediately afterward, a full-color map was displayed on the right side of the helmet’s faceplate, surprising Minoru. Apparently it was equipped with a clear display.

  “…Thank you for letting me do this, Professor,” said Yumiko in a small voice.

  “Don’t do anything rash. If I run across any new information I’ll contact you immediately,” replied Riri before ending the transmission.

  Even though it was only just past five o’clock in the afternoon, Shinjuku had already taken on its night landscape. Under bright neon lights, the motorcycle Yumiko and Minoru were riding raced at just under the legal speed limit.

  The map on the right side of Minoru’s helmet faceplate displayed the route to Kaki-no-ki-zaka in Meguro. Yumiko, who had taken Meiji Street south all the way to Ebisu, turned right onto Komazawa Street and flitted back and forth through traffic.

  Given her skill at riding, Minoru thought that Yumiko had been riding motorcycles since before she got her Third Eye, but Minoru thought that in order to get a motorcycle license, you had to be at least sixteen years old. Since Yumiko said that she was a first-year high school student, just like Minoru, she might have at most just turned sixteen a few months ago. But even considering that…

  “…Umm,” said Minoru over the intercom.

  “What is it?” Yumiko asked.

  “What was the engine size of this motorcycle again?”

  “It’s 798cc,” Yumiko replied.

  “Which means it counts as a large-model motorcycle, right?”

  “That’s correct.”

  “What was the earliest age that you could get a large-model motorcycle license again?”

  “Eighteen, of course,” said Yumiko tersely, before pulling hard on the accelerator.

  Minoru, who was about to yell out, “What?!” had his outcry shoved back down his throat as he was subject
ed to the g-force of the acceleration.

  About ten minutes later, after entering a residential area and returning to modest speeds, they stopped in front of a single house.

  After confirming that they had reached their destination on the map, Minoru let out a sigh. “That’s a really big house.”

  “You would think that the land alone would go for more than a hundred million yen,” replied Yumiko, with a little bit of shock in her voice as well.

  The residence, which was surrounded by a tall rock-wall fence, had to be at least three hundred square meters, but there were lots of fallen leaves scattered in the yard and there was a large sign in the front that marked the house for sale.

  After pulling the motorcycle around the back and shutting off the engine, Yumiko got off the motorcycle and looked up at the tall rock-wall fence.

  “We’re going to jump. Don’t take off your helmet. It’ll be a lot of trouble if our faces got caught on a security camera.”

  “What do you mean by…jump?” Minoru asked.

  “Exactly how it’s written in the dictionary,” she said, wrapping her arm around Minoru’s waist.

  After a short dip down, she kicked off the ground.

  Acceleration.

  With one jump they landed on top of the fence, and with another jump they leaped onto the roof.

  After Yumiko released Minoru, she added unaffectedly, “With my own jump power, that’s about all I can do. It’s a lot more fun to use the motorcycle.”

  “I…think I’ve had more than my share of enjoyment of that,” Minoru replied, shaking his head. What are we, ninjas in a B action movie? he thought, but didn’t say anything more.

  From the roof they descended to a second-floor veranda, and Yumiko cut a hole in the glass from a strange tool she took out of her pocket and unlocked the door. From there, they entered the house. The first room they entered appeared to be a ten tatami mat–size bedroom, but the panels of the double bed were sticking out and the walk-in closet was also empty.