The Biter

by Reki Kawahara

  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 jus
t 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 h
e 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.