The Trancer

by Reki Kawahara

Wow, I feel like I’m in a movie, Minoru thought, taking the black USB flash drive out of his pocket and inserting it in the port on the side of the laptop. He eased the lid open carefully, causing the LCD screen to light up automatically. It appeared the laptop had only been in standby, not powered off.

  With an apparently fast CPU and an advanced SSD, it took only a few moments for the machine to load the desktop. The background was solid black, with only the drab default icons visible. A progress bar appeared automatically, and the light on the flash drive began to flash rapidly.

  “Um…copying is under way,” Minoru reported. He was closing the lid of the laptop when DD’s voice suddenly cut in.

  “Ah…oh, shit!” His voice was low and tense through the phone’s speakers. “There’s a Ruby Eye approaching from the northwest! I can’t tell who it is…but they’re giving off crazy pressure—my nose is burning up! Isolator, activate your shell right now! They’re gonna reach the room you’re in in less than a minute!!”

  “B-but the data is still…” The small blue light was still flashing frantically. If he activated his shell, he wouldn’t be able to collect the drive—and if he pulled it out now, it wouldn’t be able to set the PC back to its original state, and the enemy might realize the computer had been tampered with.

  “…It doesn’t matter; your safety is our top priority. Turn it on now!” ordered the Professor.

  “Roger,” Minoru responded, immediately activating his protective shell.

  Based on the data from their previous battles, Minoru’s detection radius—in other words, the range from which a Ruby Eye could smell the activation of his abilities—was about nine meters. If this Ruby Eye was walking toward the living room from the north side of the building, they should be well outside that distance. Thus, the approaching Ruby Eye should still be unaware of Minoru’s and Suu’s presence. Nonetheless, Minoru headed over to the southwest corner of the room in the blue-tinted silence of his shell.

  “…Crouch down, so we’re in the shadow of the wall,” Suu said unexpectedly. Puzzled, Minoru did so, and she explained, “You and I are mostly invisible right now, but our pupils aren’t. If we’re up against a light background, it’s possible that someone could notice them.”

  “I-I see…” At this, Minoru’s heart began to pound even faster. Just then, Suu reached around from his back and pressed her hands over his heart.

  “There’s nothing to be afraid of. If it comes down to it, we’ll fight. There’s no power on earth that can beat ours when we’re working together.”

  “…Yeah.” Even through the sturdy harness, Minoru could feel the warmth of Suu’s hands, slightly cooler than his own. As if her hands were draining away his anxiety, he felt his heartbeat slowly settling down as he nodded.

  A few moments later, the doorknob on the living room’s glass door turned slowly.

  The only Ruby Eyes Minoru had ever faced down directly were Biter and Igniter. Their ages, physiques, and personalities had been very different, but they’d shared one trait in common: hatred. Both of them had held a seemingly endless level of hatred toward other humans that radiated from them like a poisonous cloud. Even through his protective shell, Minoru had been able to feel that hate.

  But the Ruby Eye who was coming through the glass door now was completely different from both Biter and Igniter. Their movements and even the atmosphere they projected were perfectly controlled, not revealing a single hint of information about the Ruby Eye’s thoughts.

  And there was one more obvious difference: This Ruby Eye was a woman.

  “…?!” Minoru let out a loud gasp, then instinctively covered his mouth in a panic before remembering that there was no way for her to hear him through the shell, anyway. Taking a deep breath, he looked at her more closely.

  The woman walked toward the sofa on the opposite side of the room from their hiding place as if gliding across the spacious wooden floor. Placing the tote bag she was carrying on the floor, she stretched and gave a long sigh, then walked over to the window and opened the blinds. Light poured into the room, illuminating her body.

  She was fairly tall, at least 170 centimeters. Her light brown hair was gathered up in a bun, and she wore a stylish blue-gray suit with a tight matching skirt. Her long legs were clad in glossy tan stockings, and her lovely face could only be described as bewitching. She wore rather heavy makeup, with a long nose and double eyelids rarely found on a Japanese person. She seemed to be in her late twenties, but it was difficult to say for sure.

  She’s no ordinary person, Minoru’s instincts told him, but he was unable to tell what kind of threat she might pose immediately, so he whispered hoarsely to Suu, “Is that…the Ruby Eye…?”

  “…I think so,” Suu answered, her voice echoing Minoru’s uncertainty. “I’ve never seen her before… It’s too bad we can’t photograph her.”

  “Wh…? Oh, right…” Minoru was about to ask why not, but then he worked it out himself. Suu’s refraction ability also applied to the clothes she was wearing and objects she was holding, so a phone or camera would also be affected, meaning the light that should normally reflect off it would avoid it instead. In other words, even if they had a camera, its lens would be unable to capture the necessary light.

  In that case, we can at least burn her image into our eyes until smoke comes out of them, Minoru thought, focusing on her.

  “Huh?!” he yelped suddenly in alarm. Suu had covered his eyes with both hands. The light that should have been flowing into his pupils was now blocked by her hands, so he couldn’t see a thing.

  “Wh-what are you doing?!”

  “Nnng…”

  “…‘nng’?”

  “Nnng.” Repeating her mysterious groan, Suu seemed very reluctant as she let go of Minoru’s eyes. The sight that awaited him made Minoru jerk backward, nearly headbutting Suu in the face.

  The woman who was presumed to be a Ruby Eye was in the process of unzipping her skirt and tossing it onto the floor. Minoru froze in shock and stayed frozen as she proceeded to unbutton her blouse. Even as the white fabric slipped away from her shoulders, he didn’t have the mental capacity to look away, rooted to the spot less than nine meters away from the woman as she stripped down to her black underwear.

  When the woman tossed her clothes onto the couch and sat down, pulling off her tan stockings, Minoru finally calmed down enough to avert his eyes, his mouth still hanging open. The atmosphere inside the silent protective shell had become unbearably tense. Feeling that he had to do something about this, Minoru cast around for ideas, for a moment contemplating making some kind of joke before quickly giving up on that plan. His neck creaked as he turned his head to look at the laptop and finally hit upon something to say.

  “Ah…i-i-it looks like the USB drive is done copying the data.”

  On top of the desk in the north side of the room, the USB flash drive had stopped blinking; it seemed it had finished copying the laptop’s data and had returned to a state of hibernation.

  “…But if she goes to use the computer, she’ll notice it’s there…”

  “…Probably.”

  Was it Minoru’s imagination, or was Suu’s tone a bit chilly as she responded, “We should attempt to retrieve it now if at all possible”?

  “Y-yeah. But…in order to take it out, I’ll have to deactivate the barrier…”

  “You can’t do it from inside the shell?”

  Relieved at least that the conversation had continued, Minoru shook his head slightly. “I…don’t think so. Turning a door handle is one thing, but extracting such a small object…”

  “…”

  Since Suu had fallen silent, Minoru risked another glance toward the sofa. Her stockings removed, the woman was sitting on the sofa in her underwear, a small mirror now set up on the glass table. She took some kind of cream out of her bag and began rubbing it over her face. It looked like she was taking off her makeup—in which case, she would be occupied for some time, giving them a chance to retrieve
the flash drive.

  After a moment, Suu spoke up thoughtfully. “…I don’t think the coefficient of friction for the shell is fixed at zero. You might be able to change it.”

  “…Change it?”

  “Yes. Think about it… When you walk, your feet don’t slide around at all. It’s much steadier than I’d imagined. Do you remember what the Professor said before this mission? That the shell’s elasticity might be changeable?”

  “…Y-yes… I guess so, but…”

  “If the same is true for its friction…you might be able to change it to suit your needs, so that we can retrieve the memory stick while still in the shell.”

  “To suit my needs…” Listening to her explanation, he did feel as if it made some sense. When they had infiltrated the Igniter Yousuke Nakakubo’s former home, Minoru had been able to descend the stairs of the flooded basement while still in the shell. The stairs had been slick and moldy, and in theory he would have likely slipped on them even if he hadn’t been in his protective shell, but instead his feet had stuck to the rotting steps like suction cups.

  If he focused now like he had then, was it possible…?

  “…I’ll try.” Minoru glanced at the sofa again. The woman was busy rubbing cold cream on her eyes, her face turned away from the computer desk.

  Minoru rose into a crouch and slowly began to edge along the wall toward the northern side of the room. Spacious though the living room was, the distance to the desk was still only about forty-six meters, but right now that felt incredibly long.

  Arriving in front of the desk after about ten seconds, Minoru twisted his body and stretched his invisible right hand toward the laptop. He spread his thumb and index finger out wide and attempted to pinch the USB flash drive in between them.

  As he started to glance toward the woman’s back again, he heard Suu’s voice. “I’ll keep an eye on her. You focus on controlling the shell.”

  “Ah…all right.” Minoru nodded and slowly, carefully moved his fingers until at last he felt resistance on his fingertips. Stick together. Stick together. Willing his fingers to hold on to the drive, he pulled back his hand, but it slipped right through, with as little friction as oil on glass.

  I knew it wouldn’t work, he thought with a sigh, then pulled himself together to rethink the situation. Okay. When I was walking down those stairs, I didn’t have any awareness of feeling the surface of the shell or its friction. If anything, I felt as if the soles of my feet were sticking to the ground. So instead of trying to use the shell to grasp it…if I think about holding it with my fingertips…

  Reaching for the USB again, Minoru focused on the nerves in his fingertips this time. In reality, they were three centimeters away from the drive, but if he focused his mind on reducing that distance to zero…

  “…!” He felt resistance in his right hand, stronger this time. “I-I think I have it!” he exclaimed in a low voice.

  Suu’s reply was immediate. “Good. She’s almost done with her lips. Pull it out and put it in your pocket quickly!”

  Minoru nodded and quickly but carefully pulled out the USB flash drive. A cheaper connector would have stuck in stubbornly at a time like this, but luckily, the Professor’s drive was gold-plated and polished, so it slid smoothly out of the laptop’s port.

  If that woman was to look this way now, she’d see a USB drive floating above the desk. Minoru held his breath as he pulled the drive away and slipped it into his jacket pocket. Immediately, it entered the field of Suu’s refraction ability and vanished.

  Exhaling deeply, Minoru started to move back toward the southwest corner of the room, when Suu cried out suddenly. “Ah…the cord!”

  Without his noticing, Minoru’s right leg had gotten caught on the LAN cable that stretched from the laptop to the wall, and his movement had pulled it ever so slightly. It looked as though the cord had caused the laptop to move a little as a result.

  Minoru and Suu wouldn’t have been able to hear it, but if it had made a noise, the woman might look their way.

  Clenching his teeth, Minoru quickly turned to look at the sofa. The woman had paused her movements, but her face was still pointed toward the mirror. She could just be checking that all her makeup had been successfully removed, or she could have been pricking her ears up to listen.

  “…We don’t know what that Ruby Eye’s power is…,” Suu murmured, her voice low and tense. “We’d have to beat her to the punch. If she comes over here, circle around behind her and deactivate the shell. I’ll neutralize her with my Taser.”

  “…Okay,” Minoru responded briefly, still crouching and clenching his teeth.

  Before long, the lingerie-clad woman rose from the sofa. However, instead of turning to the left toward Minoru and Suu’s hiding place, she turned right and walked toward an adjacent kitchen. Leaning over the sink, she turned on the faucet and began to wash her face.

  Breathing a small sigh of relief, Minoru carefully eased back into the shadows of the wall. After a minute or so, the woman dried her face with a towel and strolled back over to the sofa. Then she let down her hair, brushed it out for a moment, and parted it into a simple ponytail with a black hair tie.

  …That hairstyle doesn’t seem like it’d match the suit she was wearing very well…

  Minoru thought to himself rather nosily, and indeed, the woman pulled out a new change of clothes from her shopping bag, producing a navy-blue skirt of some kind that she shook out briskly.

  In a moment, Minoru’s eyes again widened in surprise. His astonishment seemed to be passed on to Suu, who gave a small gasp over his right shoulder.

  The outfit the woman had pulled out of the bag was unmistakably a sailor suit—a high school uniform.

  The two trespassers were dumbfounded. Unaware that she was being watched, the woman first pulled on the snug top, tugging her hair out of the neck hole, zipping up the side, and fastening the three buttons on the chest. Then she pulled on a pair of black stockings and stepped into the blue pleated skirt, finally taking out a white scarf that she tied around the collar and pulled through the front loop of the shirt.

  As she shook out her hair and stood up, she was no longer the young businesswoman they had seen enter the room. Without the makeup, her face looked fresh and clean, and her simple hairstyle and knee-length skirt made her nothing less than the perfect image of a prep-school student. She reached into the bag again and pulled out a pair of black thick-rimmed glasses to complete the look, then neatly put away her chic suit and cosmetics with practiced ease.

  “Wh…which one is the real her?” Minoru asked, hoping for some feminine wisdom from Suu, but she simply shook her head.

  “…I don’t know… Since Third Eyes invigorate their hosts’ bodies, it’s hard to tell someone’s age from their looks…” After a moment, she seemed to pull herself together. “But if she really is in her twenties, I would think it would be intensely difficult to walk around dressed like that, even for a Ruby Eye.”

  …Is that right? Minoru thought drily. Before his eyes, the career woman–turned–high school girl picked up her repacked tote bag, closed the blinds, and at last began to walk toward the computer desk.

  If she started up the laptop now, there should be no traces left to indicate it had been tampered with. Despite knowing this, Minoru was still sweating as she approached, but instead of sitting in the mesh computer chair, she simply tore off a single sheet of paper from the memo pad on the end of the desk and wrote something out with the attached ballpoint pen. Then, still holding the note, she strode briskly toward the door to leave the room.

  “I-it looks like…she’s leaving. I wonder what that memo was…”

  “A message for one of her associates maybe?”

  “Yeah, it could be… We should probably try to get a look.”

  As they spoke, the high school girl reached the glass door and walked into the hallway without looking back. Minoru waited about ten seconds, then stood and walked far enough into the room to see into t
he hallway just as the entranceway door closed. After another few moments, he looked through the blinds and saw the woman leaving the building and walking north. Walking briskly, the woman turned down a side street and disappeared from sight.

  “…She wasn’t holding the note anymore…,” Minoru murmured, and Suu nodded.

  “She may have left it in one of the other rooms.”

  “Right… We should look for it.” Checking that the USB flash drive was still securely in his pocket, Minoru opened the glass door and walked into the hallway. Immediately, he noticed that the door to the small, empty side room they’d checked before was now open.

  He knew there should be nobody else in the building, but he was nervous nonetheless as he walked to the door and shone the LED light inside.

  “Ah…” In the center of the concrete room, there was a white sheet of paper. Without a doubt, it was the memo the Ruby Eye woman had written. Given its conspicuous placement, it must have been meant for the next person who would be arriving at the building. Which meant they couldn’t leave without finding out what it was.

  As he started to step into the room, Suu suddenly squeezed Minoru’s shoulders.

  “Wh-what’s the matter?”

  “…No, it’s… It’s nothing.”

  “Okay…” With a puzzled tilt of his head, Minoru took one step forward, then two, until he soon arrived in front of the paper. Crouching down, he attempted to read the dark black letters.

  It was only one short sentence, with Roman letters in neat cursive, but Minoru couldn’t immediately grasp their meaning. He picked it up, staring at it with intense concentration.

  “What does it say? It’s…it’s not English, right? Um…A, u, r…”

  He had gotten only about halfway through when Suu cried out sharply, “Oh no…we have to get out…!!”

  “Huh…?” Automatically, Minoru half rose to his feet, but he still couldn’t take his eyes off the note.

  Au revoir.

  It was a phrase he felt sure he had seen or heard somewhere. French maybe. As for the meaning…wasn’t it…