“Don’t worry. The weight was nothing compared to when you got on top of me in your bed before.”
“…Oh?”
The Professor raised her eyebrows, turning from the monitor. Minoru felt the blood draining from his face, and he shook his head hurriedly.
“D-d-during the experiment!” he explained fumblingly. “We had no choice…for safety…um—”
Suu cut in smoothly. “Also, compared to the forty-plus seconds it took you to get my smartphone out of my breast pocket, the amount of time was nothing, either.”
“…Oh-ho?”
Get me out of here!
Minoru screamed silently, about to instinctively activate his protective shell, when the elevator creaked behind him. Instantly, there was another whoosh as Suu vanished into the air. Now that he knew she was there, he could see an indent in the pink cushion where she was sitting.
“…What are you up to now?”
“N…nothing, really…,” Minoru mumbled sheepishly, slinking into a different chair.
Glancing to his right, Yumiko caught sight of the pink cushion and gave a slight nod, her expression steady. “Hello, Komura.”
A response came immediately from the seemingly empty air above the cushion. “Hello, Azu.” Looking away, Yumiko took the seat to Minoru’s left. Immediately, as if he’d been waiting for the three to assemble, DD’s strained voice came through the speaker.
“This is DD. We’ve arrived at the area where Liquidizer seems to have used her power. She’s already long gone. But…it’s very strange.”
“What is?” the Professor asked quickly, speaking into the microphone on top of the desk. After a moment, a response came not from DD but from Olivier.
“…Nobody’s been killed.”
“What…? It wasn’t a murder?” The Professor’s pigtails swayed as she spoke slowly and dubiously. “Then what did they do…?”
“It was a robbery. In fact, it looks like something out of a Hollywood heist movie. Looks like that woman used her liquefaction ability to melt a giant hole in the wall of a bank and enter the vault.”
Olivier’s words stunned all of them into silence, their eyes wide, with the obvious exception of Suu, whose expression wasn’t visible.
“So does that mean…they stole a bunch of gold…?”
“Well, about that…”
DD’s voice returned to continue his report. “The site of the robbery was the Yamato Bank branch near Ootsuka Station, but of course it was already all blocked off by the police…though we tapped into the police radio and heard them say that none of the money was missing. Apparently they just went through the safe-deposit boxes and stole some of their contents.”
“Safe-deposit boxes, huh…? Hmm. Then it’ll be tough to figure out what exactly they stole.”
“Yeah. Even the bank staff don’t usually know what the customers are keeping in their safe-deposit boxes…”
“Hmm…” The Professor folded her arms over her lab coat and leaned back in her high-back chair, closing her eyes. Behind her smooth forehead, her speculation ability was likely hard at work. Her eyes still closed, the ten-year-old commander spoke as if thinking out loud. “Liquidizer was probably after just a single item and used the other safe-deposit boxes for a diversion. And if she was willing to risk us detecting her use of her abilities, the item was probably very important to the Syndicate’s goal of a widespread attack on humanity…or was something to help them exterminate the SFD.”
The Professor’s eyes snapped open, and she shifted her gaze to the round analog clock on the wall. “But wait… Why now? It’s not even four o’clock yet. There would still be the risk of passersby seeing them, and bank clerks, too. Why would they break in at that time?”
“Maybe it’s just their Ruby Eyes arrogance…?” Yumiko spoke up, her eyes narrowed and her voice quiet and hard. “They don’t even see ordinary humans as people anymore. Couldn’t it be that they just didn’t care if there were eyewitnesses, since they could kill anyone who got in their way…?”
“Hmm…I’m not so sure about that. Judging by the data we’ve collected so far, Liquidizer is a coolheaded pragmatist. She would have everything planned to a T, without a single unnecessary action. It would obviously be much easier to break in to a bank at night than during the day. That woman would surely have known that, so deliberately choosing daytime—and the fact that she made a hole in the other wall to begin with… There must have been a reason. Which means…”
The Professor pressed her middle finger to her temple, then continued in a more forceful tone. “Which means it wasn’t every safe-deposit box but one that was the diversion… They all were. This entire break-in was meant to distract us—it was bait to attract DD’s senses!”
Everyone in the room, as well as DD and Olivier over the speakers, was shocked into silence. After a moment, Minoru ventured a dumbfounded question. “You mean…at the same time, the Ruby Eyes were up to something else in some other place?”
“So it would seem. And I’m willing to bet that what they did there wasn’t a murder, either. If it was, I doubt they would’ve gone so out of their way to distract us from it.” With her speculation ability at full throttle, the Professor rattled off deductions:
“Whatever they were doing, and wherever they did it, they didn’t want us to find out about it. And it was something they could do only during daytime. No…most likely, a place that they could get into only in the daytime.” She whirled in her chair to face Minoru and Yumiko. “What sorts of places come to mind that you can enter only until about three or four p.m.?”
“Other banks,” Yumiko guessed immediately.
“The post office,” Suu suggested, still invisible in her seat.
“…School?” Minoru offered uncertainly.
I feel like there’s someplace else…
As he racked his brain, the young women to his left and right continued firing off ideas in succession:
“A ward office.”
“Museums.”
“Art galleries.”
“Hospitals.”
“That’s it!” the Professor shouted, half leaping out of her mesh chair. “There was a report a while ago that one of the former Ruby Eyes who’d undergone Third Eye removal surgery and was in rehabilitation had been contacted by someone possibly from the Syndicate. If that’s what happened here, then the target must have been…”
The Professor grabbed the receiver of the landline phone off the desk, hitting a speed-dial button. As soon as it connected, she fired off a rapid question, then snapped her fingers when the person on the other end responded. With a hasty thank-you, she hung up the phone, the traces of a triumphant smile on her lips.
“Bingo. Today at three thirty p.m., at the Harbour Ward Hospital, the patient Yousuke Nakakubo—in other words, the former Igniter—had a visitor for the first time.”
“What?” This time it was Minoru who half rose from his seat. “Don’t tell me they…k-killed…”
“If that were the case, they’d have no reason to cover their tracks. No, Nakakubo is safe. However, one of the nurses witnessed something strange. Apparently, the man who visited Nakakubo was recording his face with a video camera while he slept. I’m not sure why, but that recording must somehow contain information valuable enough that Liquidizer staged a bank heist in order to acquire it in secret.”
The Professor then leaned over and spoke into the microphone, her voice full of conviction. “DD, Oli-V. Forget about the bank. Sorry, but can you head straight over to the hospital where Nakakubo is being kept? I need you to get a hold of the surveillance camera footage. I’ll make the arrangements with the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare now.”
Walking out of the building that served as a Syndicate safe house, Mikawa paused and looked back for a moment. It really did look like a harmless five-story building. Rain stained the concrete outer walls black, and there was a dust cloud gathered at the entrance.
However, the inside bore no resem
blance to the decrepit exterior. For reasons unclear, one could use Third Eye abilities inside the building as much as one pleased without fear of detection by the black hunters. Presumably, this was thanks to some kind of device set up in the walls.
At one point, Mikawa had asked Liquidizer how it all worked. But a knowing smile had been her only response.
There were still many things he didn’t know about the Syndicate. He had been a part of it for about two months now, yet he didn’t even know how many members it had, and he’d never met the group’s leaders.
However, none of that ultimately mattered to him. The Syndicate provided Mikawa with shelter and information, without even asking for anything in return. Now that he was independent, they wouldn’t come to his rescue if he got into battle with the Jet Eyes, but he was thankful just to have a place like this to nurse his wounds.
Apparently, Igniter had rejected the Syndicate’s invitation because he hadn’t liked their strict limitations on murder. Mikawa felt the same way, but he also knew that going around killing recklessly was a surefire way to get sniffed out by the black dogs.
Two days ago, he had obtained plenty of kills thanks to an unexpectedly heavy downpour. Even now, if he closed his eyes, he could picture perfectly the sweet spectacle of countless cars crashing into one another and going up in flames. This memory alone could likely sustain him for the next month; he needed time to let his chest wound fully heal, anyway.
And once January came, there would surely be plenty of snowstorms. Snow would mean a much larger buildup on the ground than any rain. If he could come up with some creative new ways to use his power, he was sure he could have even more fun than two days ago. And the humans, who would assume that the havoc he caused was brought on by water’s natural phase transitions, would learn just how terrifying and merciless those phenomena could be.
Just as I once learned it firsthand.
And just as my friend continues to experience it, somewhere in the recesses of this city.
Abruptly, Mikawa turned his back on the building and began to walk unhurriedly toward the nearest station, mindful of the wound on the right side of his chest.
“Okay…here goes nothing.”
“Go ahead,” a quiet voice responded from behind Minoru’s back.
Minoru glanced briefly at the silently watching Professor Riri and Yumiko, then activated his protective shell in despair.
It’s just going to fail again. Suu’s going to get thrown into the wall, just like Yumiko did before. The fact that it succeeded in my room was definitely a one-time-only stroke of luck. And my mind is so preoccupied right now…
His head full of such thoughts, Minoru waited a moment in the newly created perfect silence before he slowly, fearfully looked over his shoulder.
But as he looked at the polyurethane foam padding through the pale blue haze, he didn’t see a single dent.
“Um…did it…?” he started in a whisper.
Immediately, a voice responded so close to his ear that he jumped.
“Yes, I’m here, Minoru. No matter how many times I experience this…it’s still very strange.”
“Ah…um, that is… Yes.”
Why did it work?!
In his mind, Minoru practically screamed. True enough, he couldn’t see Suu Komura right now with her refraction ability activated. And after taking into consideration the failures from a few days ago, they had changed positions so that Minoru stood in front of her instead of behind. But with her pressed so close to his back, he could still feel her body heat and hear her breath by his ear. It could hardly be said that he wasn’t aware of her presence.
Could it be that the success or failure of these experiments isn’t based on my mentality at all, just on the random whims of my Third Eye itself? …Hey, that’s what’s going on, right?
He addressed his thoughts toward the Third Eye parasite embedded in his chest. At the same time, he cast a sidelong glance toward his left. Professor Riri was standing by the recording equipment with a look of intense interest on her face, while Yumiko sat a little ways away, fixing Minoru with a bit of a glare.
This in spite of the fact that she herself had suggested they attempt to re-create the experiment while they waited for DD and Olivier’s reconnaissance report. And directly beforehand, she had whispered privately in Minoru’s ear, “It’s not as though I’m hoping for you to fail or anything.”
So while he didn’t expect her to be thrilled about the experiment’s success or anything, he would’ve appreciated it if she would at least refrain from directing a piercing ice beam at him from her eyes. As this thought was running through his mind, the Professor picked up a small microphone from the desk and spoke into it. The same light-wave communication system they had used for the nuclear power plant mission a few days before was again set in Minoru’s left ear, and she made no effort to hide her excitement as her voice flowed through.
“All right! Now please proceed to the second stage of the experiment.”
“Huh? Second stage…?” Minoru tilted his head, puzzled.
“That was directed at me,” Suu said quietly behind him, equipped with the same communication setup. “The Professor and I made some arrangements earlier.”
“Huh…? Suu, what are you…?”
Without answering his question, Suu suddenly wrapped her invisible arms around Minoru’s torso. The body heat he could feel on his back intensified, and he stiffened up immediately, only to feel Suu’s breath on his right ear as she whispered softly:
“Minoru. I don’t know why, or maybe there are a lot of different factors, but…whatever the reason might be, I don’t feel afraid of you. Even though I couldn’t even show my real appearance to Chief Himi, who I trust and respect…”
“Um…right…,” Minoru responded stupidly, unsure how to react to this sudden confession.
Suu continued calmly. “So you shouldn’t be afraid of me, either.”
“Huh…? Of course I’m not a-afraid…”
“The day before yesterday, I said that your sight line was transparent. But to be honest, it did have a very slight hint of color…the faintest tint of gray. Black…is the color of fear. I think that if I could see my own sight line, it would be as black as ink.”
“…Black…,” Minoru repeated dazedly, forgetting all about the Professor and Yumiko watching them nearby. But it made sense. There was no doubt that Suu Komura was still a stranger to him. No matter how similar their abilities were or how much he sympathized with her pain, he still couldn’t read her thoughts and feelings. For all he knew, underneath her cool facade, she could secretly be laughing at him, scorning him, despising him—
“…!!”
Minoru gritted his teeth, forcibly cutting himself off from that line of thought. If he was doubting whether Suu might secretly hold malice toward him, that was virtually the same as having malicious thoughts toward her himself.
“…I’m sorry. I don’t know if I can stop being afraid of you…of anyone entirely,” Minoru murmured dejectedly into the silence that was otherwise broken by only the mysterious, rhythmic noise. “But…for what it’s worth, I believe you. That you’re not afraid of me.”
“Thank you.”
Suu’s quiet words were carried into his ear on a warm breath. Then she spoke more loudly into the headset. “All right, I’m going to start now.”
Whoosh. Minoru heard a quiet noise like static. Then he saw his body—from his head to his feet, complete with his hooded jacket, jeans, and all—vanish into thin air. “Wh…wha—?!” he yelped, waving his right hand in front of his face, but he could see nothing there, no matter how hard he focused. He could feel the wind pressure when he blew on his hand and his skin when he touched his nose and cheeks, but he definitely couldn’t see any part of his body at all.
“Did you… Is this…”
“Yes, it’s my refraction ability. The visible light all around you is avoiding your body, making you completely transparent. Aside from your pupils,
that is.”
“You mean… Suu, you can apply your ability to other people, too…?” Minoru asked in a hushed voice, but he felt Suu shaking her head by his right shoulder.
“No…not just anyone. Until now, the only other person I’ve been able to make vanish with me is my brother.”
“Your brother…?”
Minoru repeated what she said, realizing that although he knew that Suu had an older brother, he didn’t know anything about him: his name, his age, or his ability. However, this must mean that Suu didn’t feel any fear toward her older brother, either. This seemed like it would be natural, but she had said a few days ago that she was even afraid of both her parents.
Minoru’s thoughts were interrupted by a movement on his left, and he turned to look. The Professor was smiling complacently, giving them a thumbs-up.
“…Well, I’ll deactivate my ability now. We’ll just have to look forward to finding out what happens when I activate it fully next time.”
As Suu spoke, Minoru’s body came back into view. He deactivated his protective shell as well, and exhaled deeply when he felt Suu’s body heat pull away from his back. Just as he looked up, he heard the Professor shout.
“All right! Mikkun, Hinako, great job!”
“Ah…um, thanks…” Minoru nodded absently, shifting his gaze to her left to see Yumiko, her expression even more dangerous now. The Professor seemed to have forgotten all about the situation from just two hours ago, in which Yumiko had stormed out and she herself had sent Minoru after her.
“Ah…errr, um…”
I have to do something about this.
He racked his brain desperately, a stiff smile on his face as he fumbled for words. “U-um, but this combination of isolation and refraction isn’t really all that useful, right? Suu’s ability on its own is enough for surprise attacks and stuff without mine…”
The Trancer Page 14