by Rocco Ryg
“He must’ve stolen it,” said Gen.
“Only one way to find out.” Chikara opened her phone and dialed a number.
“Who are you calling?” asked Gen.
“Michiko. I need you to talk to her.”
“I thought we didn’t want her to know anything.”
“There’s been a murder, Gen-kun. The rules have changed. Here, talk to her, she’ll trust you more than us.”
Gen took the phone and said, “Mrs. Nagasado? Good evening, this is Kagekuro Gen and I really need to speak with your daughter. It’s an emergency.” When Michiko picked up, he continued, “Michiko-chan, hey, it’s Gen.”
“What do you want?”
“Listen, this is an emergency... you know that ring your father gave you?”
“What... how did you know?”
“Never mind, just tell me if you gave it to anybody.”
“No, you tell me first how you know about this.”
“Ughh... fine! That ring emits a radiation that gives people supernatural powers. That’s where your mind control comes from. Now, somebody is burning people and we think your ring is responsible, so tell me who has it.”
Michiko paused and processed the new information. “Supernatural powers? That’s crazy!”
“Look, Chikara-san’s mother could see the future. She warned us about things like this and it’s all coming true. Takabe Ryouta is dead! Someone burned him alive in school today! I know we’ve all been at each other’s throats, but if we don’t cooperate, more people are going to die! Now please, tell me who has the ring!”
“I gave it to Kaijin.”
“Crap! Listen, if you see him, call the police. You’re not safe.”
Michiko hung up, too scared and confused to listen any further. Before she could put these sudden revelations together, she received another call. She saw Kaijin’s name on her phone and immediately picked up. “Kaijin-kun? Is that you?” She heard no answer. “Talk to me.” Again, he didn’t speak. “Kagekuro Gen called me and said you burned Takabe today. Is that true? Did you kill him?”
Kaijin tried to explain himself, but the words just wouldn’t come out. His mouth felt like mush whenever he spoke, preventing him from warning her of the evil conspiracy that sought to take her from him. He remembered her earlier command to never speak to her again and realized his attempts wouldn’t work.
“Kaijin, answer me!” Her command would not work over the phone. Kaijin hung up and pounded his fist on his living room table. The only option he had left was to confront Michiko and tell her somehow, but what if the redhead or anybody else got to her first? He had no time to think anymore. He had to act.
Nokoribi Nobu stumbled into his living room with a half-empty bottle of Kloors beer, still inebriated from his after-work drinking binge. Kaijin hated when he got drunk. Nobu said, “Using my phone. Did you buy a new cell?”
“No, Dad, I had a busy day and I have more important things to worry about.”
“Don’t you talk to me like that, you ungrateful brat!” Nobu threw the beer bottle at the wall, and the noise hurt Kaijin’s damaged eardrums. “I took care of you when your bitch mother left, working construction twelve hours a day, and you act like a damn homo!”
Normally, Kaijin would profusely apologize at this point and take the punch, but the fire that burned in his heart could take no more. “No, Dad, you just drink all day to forget why Mom left, and you hit me and treat me like I’m nothing!”
“What did you say?” Nobu clenched his fists and prepared to use them.
“I killed someone today, Dad. I burned him alive in school. He was a bad person who hurt my Michiko-sama, and I made him pay. I’ll make them all pay... that white girl and anybody else who gets in my way, and you know what? I don’t think I need you anymore!”
Before the father could unleash his anger, the son ignited his entire upper body in scorching flames and fired them in every direction. The cheap walls and flammable furniture quickly caught the fire and spread it across the house. Nobu screamed in horror as the inferno consumed his flesh, but Kaijin ignored his cries and continued to release his blazes at everything he hated.
With the fire raging out of control, Kaijin left the house. His shirt had been incinerated, along with everything he owned, but he no longer cared. Only protecting Michiko mattered now. He ran into the nearby woods to formulate his next move.
Shorty afterwards, Gen, Renka and Chikara arrived at the burning Nokoribi residence, having obtained the address from Gen’s police source. Firefighters did their best to extinguish the flames while the trio of teenagers watched with dread. Witnesses described seeing Kaijin flee the scene shirtless and unharmed, making him the prime suspect. When the firefighters finally put out the blaze, rescue teams in fire proximity suits entered the site.
Renka felt their emotions from behind the perimeter of caution tape. “They’re worried... Okay, now they’re surprised... they found something... it’s really bad.”
“It’s a body,” said Gen. “Probably Nokoribi’s parent.”
“We have to stop him before anyone else dies,” said Chikara. “Gen-kun, if you really have all these sources, now’s the time to put them on alert.”
“Should Michiko know about this?” asked Renka. “He may come after her next.”
Chikara sighed, “You’re right. I only hope he still has that ring. We need to get it back before somebody else finds it.” Her cell phone rang, displaying her father’s number. “Dad?”
“Where are you?”
“We’re at a burning house. One of our classmates got the other ring and went insane. He’s killed two people, and he’s still on the loose.”
“Your classmate is killing people? Are you sure?”
“Yes, Dad.” Chikara couldn’t believe she had to say this... “We just found our first supervillain.”
CHAPTER 10
INFERNO
Mr. Mochizuki worked on a sudoku while Mr. Fukazawa listened to the situation on the phone. While they usually rushed to help man the hoses with the other firefighters, the chief assigned them to guard the station on this particular night.
Fukazawa hung up and told his coworker, “That was the chief. The house is toast, one body in the living room. Witnesses saw the kid who lived there fleeing the place. They’re ruling it arson.”
Mochizuki had a bad feeling. “Just like the school. That’s two in one day. What do you think? Serial arsonist?”
“I don’t see how a kid could almost burn down a school. What, did he breathe fire or something?”
The two firefighters heard a loud crash from the downstairs entrance. They ran to the brass pole and slid down to the ground floor, noticing a shirtless young man standing in the doorway. The doors lay on the cement in pieces, seemingly melted into liquid. Mr. Fukazawa yelled, “Hey, that’s the kid.”
“What are you doing here?” shouted Mochizuki.
“I need a fire suit. My clothes keep burning.” Kaijin expected more guards on duty, but he supposed the rest of the fire unit were still responding to his burning house.
Fukazawa took out his cell to call the chief. “Listen, kid, just stay calm and we’ll have the cops here to straighten this out.”
“I said... I want... a fire suit!” Kaijin ignited his palms and blasted them with twin barrages of flame. With his opponents out of the picture, he searched the station for a suitable costume. Amidst the collection of fire-resistant clothing, he found a silver fire proximity suit designed for entry into intense heat. He put on the boots, jacket, pants and hood. As he didn’t need to breathe as much as before, a side-effect of his unique talents, he left the breathing apparatuses in place.
***
Chikara woke up and started her workout, needing to keep alert in case Kaijin resurfaced at school that day. Midway through her usual set of thirty push-ups, she heard a knock at the door. Renka entered her room looking equally tired. “Good morning. School’s cancelled.”
Chikara had let Re
nka and Gen sleep overnight, figuring they were all safer together. “I kind of expected that. Are you okay?”
“I’m sleepy. We spent all night searching for Nokoribi-san. I’m going back to bed.”
“Fine, but we’re going to search for him all day today, so be prepared.”
Renka paced back to her guestroom like a zombie.
Chikara headed downstairs for breakfast, only to hear Gen talking to her father. “The power’s gone to his head.”
“Is that what happened with you?”
“Hey, I didn’t kill anybody. The worst I did was bump a few heads.” Gen then noticed Chikara and handed her the newspaper. “He struck again. He broke into the fire station, killed two firefighters and stole a protective suit.”
Chikara read the story and tried to hide her frightened expression. “Damn it, I can’t believe this. Four people are dead for no good reason. How could Nagasado give him that ring? That idiot.” She took a few breaths to calm herself down.
Gen allowed her to relax.“If he’s going after Michiko, we have to watch her. We’ll probably have to tell her about what happened in Africa.”
“She’ll probably make us tell her.”
Mr. Kaminari poured himself some orange juice and asked, “So... this boy is burning people left and right, and you want to look for him?”
Chikara said, “We’re the only ones who can, Dad. If the police find him, he’ll kill them too.”
“And don’t forget he still has Michiko’s ring,” Gen said. “He grows more powerful with every minute he wears it, and if the cops get a hold of it, this mess will blow up even more.”
“So we have to apprehend Nokoribi without getting barbequed, get the ring back from him and hope Michiko doesn’t make us kill ourselves. I can’t wait.”
Gen cut into his eggs. “A heads-up would have been great.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know... if somebody could see these things ahead of time and warned us, thus preventing these deaths? That would have helped.”
The two Kaminaris gave him a menacing glare, so he elaborated, “What? It’s a fair question. Why didn’t your mother tell us about this when we could have done something?”
Chikara didn’t know what to say. Would her mother really allow people to die so things would end in the best way? “Everything she planned worked out in the end.”
“Not for those four guys.”
“Enough,” said Mr. Kaminari. “You’ll figure it out eventually.”
Chikara and Gen finished their breakfast, wondering how they would track down Nokoribi Kaijin and what they would do when they found him.
An hour later, after forcefully waking Renka with the power of coffee, Gen called Michiko’s residence. Ms. Nagasado answered.
“Ms. Nagasado, it’s Kagekuro Gen again. I need to talk to Michiko.”
“I’m sorry, but she and her friends went out to celebrate the day off.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“No.”
Frustrated by the woman’s naiveté, Gen resisted the urge to raise his voice. “Can I have her cell number, please? It’s very important.”
After obtaining the number, Gen tried calling. After several rings, he heard, “Hello?”
“Michiko-san, it’s Gen. Listen...” The call immediately ended. “Damn it! She hung up on me.”
“I guess she’s still freaked out from yesterday,” said Renka.
Chikara shook her head. “Typical. A pyrokinetic serial killer is looking for her and she decides to go out and party.”
“Actually, if he can’t find her either, that might buy us some time,” replied Gen. “Hey, do you have her friends’ numbers?” Chikara found Chisato and Yukiko’s home numbers in her directory, so Gen called them and obtained their cell numbers from their parents. They did not answer. “They’re not picking up either.”
“Then I guess we have to find them ourselves.” Chikara asked her father, “Dad, can I borrow Mom’s car?”
“Of course. It’s your graduation present anyway.” Masakazu betrayed a happy grin. He had been saving this gift until after the ceremony, but this crisis seemed even more appropriate.
Chikara hugged him. She had always loved that Honda Inspire. “Thank you, daddy. I’ll take great care of it.”
“Okay, then. Let’s go find us a supervillain.”
***
Kaijin found himself running down an empty street in the desolate part of town that he called home. Just hours ago, needing to cover his stolen fire suit, he had broken into a clothing store. When he finished concealing his silver costume, a black Mitsubishi Lancer pulled up to the melted door and the man in the passenger seat tried to shoot him. Escaping through the back of the store, Kaijin had led them around the area until he was prepared to spring a trap.
Seeing the mysterious car in the distance, he ran from the alley into the open street to grab their attention. The vehicle swerved around and headed towards him, so he ran as fast as he could into an abandoned factory, the perfect place to pick them off. The Mitsubishi stopped and four muscular men got out, each holding a gun. They entered the factory and pointed their weapons in every direction. From his vantage point, Kaijin saw the colorful tattoos crawling along their exposed necks and arms, the identifying marks of the Yakuza.
The assassin in front looked to the youngest member and said, “Cover the exit.” The young man looked nervous and didn’t seem to have many tattoos. Kaijin figured him to be new to the life of organized crime. The leader then said to the others, “You guys come with me. He shouldn’t be armed.”
When the three experienced killers ventured further, Kaijin sprung his trap. He focused on the door and mentally excited the air particles surrounding it, causing the only exit to burst into a wall of fire. He concentrated harder to increase the heat, transforming the orange flames to blue and then white. With his assailants distracted and unable to escape, Kaijin ignited another fire in the center of the entrance, catching the three older gangsters instantly. They screamed as the raging inferno incinerated them, making the younger one panic and fire randomly into the factory. Hearing his empty clip, Kaijin walked out and dissipated the fire in the center, leaving only three charred husks on the floor. He kept the fire at the door going, preventing the survivor’s escape.
The hired killer tried to reload his weapon, so Kaijin lit a small fire on the man’s hand. He yelped in pain and dropped the gun. Kaijin walked over the burnt corpses and lit his own hands aflame, hoping to intimidate his prey. “What’s your name?” The terrified yakuza didn’t speak, so Kaijin increased the mass of the flaming door. “Your name!”
The gangster’s survival instinct overrode his code of honor. “Izo Kouji.”
“Who sent you?”
“I don’t know. Takahama handled everything.” He pointed to the charred body of the leader.
“Then you’re useless to me.” Kaijin aimed his flaming hands at Izo and prepared to cook him just like his partners.
“Wait!” cried the frightened assassin. “Takahama said a name in the car... some foreigner... it was... uh...”
“Who?” Kaijin expected a foreign name, due to his encounter with the redhead the day before.
“Galt! Yeah, John Galt!”
Kaijin didn’t recognize the name, but figured he must be connected to the redheaded girl. “Give me your phone.”
Izo took out his smart phone and did as instructed. No longer needing him, Kaijin incinerated him quickly with limited pain. He then used the phone to search the Internet. “Who is John Galt?” The search turned up thousands of websites, many with obvious political leanings, which asked that very question.
Kaijin learned that John Galt was a character from an influential book called Atlas Shrugged. He had heard of the novel, but never thought to read it. John Galt led a strike of businessmen and producers against an oppressive government, preaching an ideology of self-reliance and selfishness as a virtue. One quote summarized his belie
fs: “I swear- by my life and my love of it- that I will never live for the sake of another man, nor ask another man to live for mine.”
Kaijin ended the search and left the factory disappointed. He could tell the mercenaries had been given an alias. The quote angered him too. He didn’t want to live his own miserable life. Only Michiko’s life mattered.
***
Chikara, Renka and Gen finished their noodles and paid their bill. “What time is it?” asked the exhausted Renka.
“6:05 in the PM. Are we ready to search again?” Gen could see his partners’ fatigue. They had looked all over the town’s hotspots for Michiko and her friends with no success. Nobody at the mall, carnival, mini-golf course, bowling alley, arcade or community pool had seen them. If peoples’ lives weren’t at stake, they probably would have given up.
A thought came to Chikara. “Hey, what’s that club on the south side of town?”
“You mean the Yandere?” Renka had been to the club before, but the unending string of perverts trying to pick her up made her boycott the place forever.
“Yeah, Hirono told me that Michiko loves that place. At this hour, she just might be there.”
The trio hopped back in the Honda Inspire, and Renka looked up the location on her smart phone. Gen, confined to the back seat at Chikara’s insistence, tried to start a crafty conversation. “Funny how we’re trying to save our arch-enemy, huh?”
Chikara said, “I wouldn’t call her that, Gen-kun.”
“Really? She fits all of the qualifications.”
Renka looked interested. “Enemy’s have qualifications?”
“Of course. The hero and their arch-enemy usually have a special connection, or they hurt the hero in some way. Also, they could be a dark reflection on the protagonist, like an evil twin. With Renka-chan, they used to be friends, but now hate each other, and by dating me, she wanted to make you jealous. With Chikara-san, her father had a... special thing with your mother, and now you two are at each other’s throats.”
“Thanks for reminding me,” Chikara scoffed.