The Biter

by Reki Kawahara

  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.”r />
  “…”

  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.”