The Biter

  And yet—the shell didn’t break.

  It was so hard it was unreasonable. This was certainly the final test that Takaesu would be put through. The moment he bit through the boy’s shell, the weakness in his spirit that couldn’t shake off the phantom of his mother even now would fade away. Then Takaesu could become a true predator…a real shark.

  That’s right, I…I am a shark.

  Takaesu’s favorite shark. The shark he identified with more strongly than the mako shark, which swam the fastest; the tiger shark, which could break open even sea turtle shells; and the emperor Megalodon, which was the most powerful.

  That was the gray nurse shark.

  It belonged to the order Lamniformes and the family Odontaspididae. It was a maximum of about three meters, almost never attacked humans, and had an incredibly ordinary form.

  But among the approximately five hundred species of sharks, there was only one characteristic that no shark but the gray nurse shark had: oophagy, cannibalism.

  Gray nurse shark fetuses eat not only unfertilized eggs, but also other shark embryos in their mother’s womb.

  Takaesu was the same.

  From the earliest time he could remember, his mother had told him over and over that he should have been twins, a boy and a girl. Hikaru and Akari. Apparently they’d even picked a name for her.

  But the only one born was Takaesu. He didn’t know what specifically had happened, but as a result of some little mishap in early pregnancy, one twin was absorbed into the other—namely, Takaesu. It was a rare phenomenon called “vanishing twin,” and it seemed to be an underlying cause of his parents’ divorce as well.

  Whenever she could, his mother would tell him, You have to work hard and eat enough for little Akari, too. When she was enraged, sometimes she would go as far as to say, After all, you ate her.

  He was in third grade when he learned about the ecology of the gray nurse shark from a field guide in the library.

  He had thought, It’s the same as me.

  I’m not human. I’ve always been a shark. That’s why I ate my sister inside Mama’s belly.

  If I’m a shark, it’s okay if I don’t have friends. It’s okay if I have to have sardines as a snack.

  I’m a shark. I’m a shark.

  After his mother had pulled out nearly all of his teeth with pliers, those magic words were the only thing that gave him emotional support. Sharks lost and replaced teeth endlessly throughout their lives. So someday, he’d get new teeth, too.

  Three months ago, the magic words had come true.

  And now the time to prove that truth had come.

  He could admit it; the boy’s shell was essentially the hardest of any material in existence. But Takaesu’s teeth were the strongest of anything ever created.

  When he bit the shell open, Takaesu would go over the final wall. He would shed all human weakness and human foolishness and become a real shark.

  “Garaaaaaaa—!!” Takaesu howled from his throat, which was starting to close up from the continuing enlargement of his muscle fibers.

  As his mouth continued the cycle of destruction and regeneration, a spurt of blood like a flame burst forth from it.

  Suddenly, all sound disappeared. It was as if even his inner ear had been converted to muscle.

  What do I care? Just make everything into jaws.

  The moment after he thought this, he felt a sensation like both eyes bursting as his vision was enveloped in darkness.

  The taste of blood disappeared. The metallic smell disappeared as well. The pain that made his face feel like it was burning disappeared.

  I’ll give it to you! I’ll give it all to you!

  Takaesu screamed inside himself in silence.

  I’ll give you everything, so take that hopelessly hard…hard…

  What? What am I biting? Why can’t I remember…?

  My brain… Even my brain is turning to muscle…

  The only thing that was left was the sensation of something warm pulsing in the core of his body. The pulsing intruded all the way into his brain and changed to muscle, taking away his memories and sensations.

  Inside Takaesu, the memory of becoming a predator three months ago disappeared. The memories of his six years of success as a gourmet food critic disappeared. The memories of going through his student days desperately hiding the fact that he had dentures disappeared.

  The memories of his mother pulling his teeth out with pliers, his mother making him memorize his multiplication tables, his mother making him chew on sardines, his mother praising him for getting a hundred on a test disappeared.

  The memories of his father giving him candy on the day they said good-bye and the memories of taking a walk with his father on the riverside as they held hands disappeared.

  Takaesu’s head was now nothing but an enormous mouth and a clump of muscle fibers to move it. There was a thunderous howl not belonging to a human.

  A huge volume of blood spurted from him. All of his muscles contracted, pushing past their limits—

  In the next instant, his jaw made a stuttering motion. Countless silver lights scattered, twinkling beautifully as they flew through the air.

  What had broken was not the boy’s shell, but the teeth that gave Takaesu his identity.

  Immediately after…

  The lump of flesh that had been the face and head and brain of the human Hikaru Takaesu burst open with violent force. Dark blood and chunks of flesh were blown outward like a waterfall. One of the teeth that was mixed in there shot into the ceiling of the parking lot and carved a deep hole in it.

  The body had lost the entire head, and only part of the lower jaw remained. It slid wetly down that transparent shell, which had held out to the end without so much as a sound of protest, and fell to the asphalt.

  He heard an irregular chattering sound.

  That’s strange. I should only be able to hear that bizarre heavy bass sound inside the shell, Minoru thought vaguely until he finally realized the source of the noise was his own teeth.

  He was completely unable to stop the shaking of any of the muscles in his body, not just those in his jaw. It was like ice water ran in his veins instead of blood. He was numb and tingly from head to toe, so much so that it was a mystery how he was still standing.

  This was the second time—no, maybe the third time—he’d been this close to death in his short sixteen years of life.

  On that night eight years ago, Minoru had been hiding in the storage compartment under the pantry floor and didn’t see the murderer’s face. Minoru had always regretted that, but after being this close to the literal “jaws of death,” he could do nothing but stand frozen in fear.

  The Biter’s rows of teeth that had so solidly held on to Minoru’s head were instruments of destruction. Their dull gleam concealed overwhelming power. Each of the massive teeth was like a blade honed with many layers of malice and murderous desire.

  He had thought it was over. That there was no way the shell could hold off that kind of power.

  In that short time, he even imagined how things would go the moment the shell was disabled. Would it shatter into countless fragments like glass? Would it be stretched out like rubber? Or would it pop and disappear in an instant like a bubble? And when would that time come?

  He would kill the Biter. Minoru had already resolved to do that much. But he hadn’t known that battling to kill or be killed would be so terrifying or so grotesque. It was a clash of naked hostility without even a shred of heroism.

  Of course, there was hatred inside Minoru, too. Hatred for the person who’d killed his family. Hatred for the Biter who’d tried to kill Tomomi and Norie. He didn’t think that the energy of those hatreds was weaker than the hatred the Biter aimed at him.

  But whether he could channel it into power was another question altogether. The Biter used hatred and murderous desire as energy to fight. This made Minoru realize that he wasn’t equipped with the circuits for that. Or maybe that was exactly the d
ifference between Jet Eyes and Ruby Eyes.

  That’s why Minoru hadn’t even been able to heave a sigh of relief, let alone raise a cry of victory, when the Biter’s head caved in as if his inability to control his own excessive murderous desires imploded it, or even when the man’s massive body had collapsed to the floor as it scattered huge amounts of blood and flesh.

  “…This…,” Minoru whispered as he watched blood like black rain pour down on the shell that had protected him to the end. “…This…”

  …Isn’t a fight. That’s what he wanted to say, but the words wouldn’t come out.

  The Ruby Eye Biter was dead.

  His ruthless, headless corpse lay on the ground. All of the memories he had built up scattered meaninglessly and left the world. And this was indeed something Minoru had done. Even if he had only stood there, Minoru had killed the Biter using his own power.

  Was this the inescapable conclusion? Or did another option exist?

  No voice answered these questions. Minoru averted his gaze from the corpse on the floor before him and staggered up. This action sent every last drop of the blood that had pooled in a hollow of his shell dripping down to the parking lot pavement.

  When he deactivated the protective shell after retreating a few steps, the sick smell of blood pressed in on him and Minoru screwed up his face. He had hesitations about leaving the Biter’s body on the floor like it was, but nothing could be done about it now. He had to hurry back up to the roof of the arena and rescue Norie from atop the beam—

  The violently expanding air beat against Minoru’s back. Then the sound of the synthetic rubber soles of someone’s shoes scraping against the asphalt echoed. He nearly put the shell on again reflexively, but stopped himself and turned around.

  Standing at the nearest end of the slope that led to the exit of the parking lot was the high school girl wearing a black blazer. It was Yumiko. The only thing he knew about the Jet Eye was her name. Just like three days ago, she had a large stun baton in her right hand.

  Running her gaze over the Biter’s body on the ground and Minoru standing far back, she brought the watch with communication capabilities to her mouth and whispered a brief message.

  “DD, I found him. The underground parking lot.”

  She dropped her left arm and jogged over with a stern expression. Her small lips moved to speak.

  But the one who spoke first was Minoru. He hurled words at her in a volume that surprised even him; he was almost shouting.

  “How can you show up when everything’s over?!”

  The reason Minoru had tried to use up time before beginning the fight with the Biter was that he had anticipated—no, expected—that Yumiko and DD would notice the smell of the Ruby Eye.

  It was selfish of Minoru to expect a rescue when he had refused to work with the two of them. He had that much self-awareness, but he just couldn’t keep himself from yelling.

  “Didn’t you tell me?! Didn’t you say you’d find the Biter?! So why…are you so late…!”

  “…”

  After biting her slightly parted lips harshly, Yumiko asked in a low, restrained voice, “So you fought the Biter alone? Are you all right? You’re not hurt?”

  The unexpected question knocked the wind out of his sails and he nodded.

  “…I’m not in any pain at the moment…”

  “I see. Just in case, I’ll make arrangements to have you taken to the hospital.”

  After returning the stun baton to the holster on her right leg, Yumiko started to raise the wristwatch to her mouth again.

  “Oh, w-wait!” he broke in hurriedly. He was hesitant to rely on her after his yelling, but he couldn’t say so. He turned his gaze to Yumiko and explained quickly.

  “My sister was left behind on the roof. The Biter attacked her and made her take some medicine… I have to hurry and save her, then take her to the hospital—”

  But Yumiko held up her left hand to interrupt the rambling Minoru, then nodded.

  “It’s okay, DD brought your sister down from the roof. She doesn’t have any wounds, and her vitals are strong.”

  “…I-I see…”

  He breathed a sigh of relief.

  Holding up her watch, Yumiko contacted someone as she walked toward Minoru.

  “We’re done here. The Biter is no longer active. The kid’s all right, but we’re going to have him seen to just in case. Bring the car around to the underground parking lot once you’ve recovered the rescue target.”

  After ending the call, she turned her gaze to the strange figure of the body on the ground a little way off. Next, she looked up at the roof, making an expression as if she had been convinced of something.

  “The car will come right away… I’d like to confirm something, just in case… The Biter… You were the one who…?”

  “…Yes. I’m the one who…killed him.”

  “Huh,” she answered briefly.

  Yumiko looked straight at Minoru. He did his best to look back into her eyes, so deep and dark they seemed to see straight down to the bottom of his soul.

  He thought she would probably reprimand him like she had three days ago. That was because, although he had let his emotions get the better of him when he shouted at Yumiko earlier, he was aware that 70 percent of what had brought on Norie’s abduction by the Biter was his own negligence and thoughtlessness.

  But Yumiko defied his expectations, her long hair swinging as she bowed low.

  “I’m sorry. We’re in the wrong this time. Yesterday, the Biter broke into a construction company in Kumagaya. There was no one there since it was Sunday, but one car was stolen. DD and I interpreted this as him escaping to the north, so we took Route 17 up there… But today we finally realized it was a feint and came back. Judging him to be an impulsive-type Ruby Eye because of the tendencies associated with his MO and ability was our mistake…”

  “…”

  This was a drastic change compared to three days ago. Minoru was confused by Yumiko’s attitude, which could even be considered admirable.

  His rage from a few minutes ago seemed to have completely dissipated as he listened to her explain. In its place, a doubt rose up in his mind.

  “But…you have a so-called teleportation ability, don’t you? If you used that, couldn’t you have transported yourself in an instant…?” he asked.

  At this, Yumiko gave a faint, wry smile and shook her head.

  “My power is different than what you’d call teleportation. How can I put it…? It amplifies my ability to accelerate and just moves me straight ahead. I can’t go through obstacles or anything, so there’s no way I could use it to travel long distances. If I collided with a building or a car while accelerating, I’d probably die.”

  Minoru nodded, thinking that was probably why she hadn’t been able to chase the Biter as he ran through the bushes three days earlier.

  “So… That’s what it is, huh? The Third Eye abilities are kind of…useful and inconvenient at the same time…,” Minoru muttered, thinking of how he couldn’t hear any sound from outside the protective shell when he activated it.

  “Just what standards are used to determine the powers…”

  “Oh, that… It’s based on the memories of the Third Eye’s host…,” Yumiko began to say, looking down.

  The sound of an engine coming down the slope interrupted the conversation.

  What appeared was an ordinary black minivan. After the van entered the underground parking lot, the engine stopped and the driver’s side door opened. DD jumped down wearing a camo-print vest just like the one he had on three days ago, although this one seemed to be a black-and-gray one for night missions.

  He slightly lifted the brim of a baseball cap in the same color and beckoned to Minoru once he had seen him. Yumiko nodded, too, so Minoru jogged over to the car.

  When DD opened the left rear sliding door, Minoru’s eyes flew to the petite figure laying on top of the fully folded-down rear seats.

  “…Norie!”
he shouted in a strangled voice, bending his upper body into the car.

  After clutching her in his arms frantically and bringing her out of the car, he knelt down on the floor and spoke to her again.

  “Norie… Are you okay? Norie!”

  The body of his adoptive sister, wrapped in a light Windbreaker to maintain her body temperature, was shockingly light. Her eyelids were still closed and her face looked white as a sheet under the emergency lights. He had a feeling that her lips moved ever so slightly at Minoru’s voice, but she didn’t regain consciousness.

  “She’s still under the influence of the sleeping meds right now, but there’s no danger to her life, kid,” DD said.

  Clapping Minoru on the shoulder as if to reassure him, DD walked over to the Biter’s body on the ground a little way away.

  He peered into the huge open wound and then looked up to the ceiling. As if he understood what had happened from this alone, he bowed his head with the same serious attitude as Yumiko.

  “Sorry, kid… And thank you. We’ll make our apologies and acknowledgments again another time. First, we gotta get you and your sister to the hospital. You okay with letting us pick the location like we usually do?”

  “Y…yes.”

  When Minoru nodded, DD turned his gaze to Yumiko.

  “I asked the chief to collect the Biter’s body. He was just on his way to the hospital, so I’m having him drop by here first. I think he’ll be here in like twenty minutes, so can ya stand by here till then, Yumii?”

  For a moment, Yumiko made a disgusted face at the thought of being left in a dark underground parking lot with a corpse, but she nodded in compliance.

  “All right. For now, just hurry up and take these two to the hospital.”

  “Got it, got it.—Oh yeah, just a quick check first to be sure. Kid, the Biter’s Third Eye disengaged, right?”

  “D-disengaged?”