The Trancer

  Secretly breathing a sigh of relief, Minoru then took a deeper breath to steel himself before venturing to greet the two. “H…hello.”

  The Professor gave him a quick wave, but Olivier remained hunched over without so much as a twitch in response; he was probably wrapped up in level grinding in another old-school RPG. With a rueful smile, Minoru was changing out his shoes for a pair of slippers when the Professor called to him from her small room on the west side of the floor.

  “Sorry, Mikkun, but our meeting’s going to be delayed by fifteen minutes or so.”

  “Ah…sure.” Minoru nodded, then glanced around the room uncertainly. For the time being, he decided to settle on the sofa behind Olivier.

  Looking over Olivier’s shoulder at the TV, Minoru saw that Divider was playing a JRPG series that even he was familiar with. Judging by the quality of the graphics, Minoru had to wonder if this game had come out near the beginning of this century. Tense, urgent music played through the sound bar that was set up underneath the TV as a giant monster rampaged around on the screen.

  At least I’ll have a boss fight to entertain me while I wait for the Professor, Minoru thought, already leaning forward in his seat.

  Then he noticed something odd. The boss monster was unleashing deadly attacks, but the party of heroes facing it wasn’t moving in the slightest. The game had a real-time battle system, so the player had to enter commands or the protagonists would simply stand there being hit by the enemy’s attacks. In fact, of the three-member party on the screen, two of the members had already run out of HP and fainted.

  And the remaining member’s HP was already in the red. Minoru leaned over on his side to look at Olivier’s hands, and sure enough, he wasn’t moving a single finger on the controller. Maybe he had some strategic reason for not attacking the boss, but at this rate, he was going to get wiped out. Concerned, Minoru timidly called out to the motionless back in front of him.

  “Um…Oli-V?”

  There was no response.

  Minoru tried again, a little louder this time. “Oli-V, your party’s going to lose…”

  At his words, Olivier’s broad shoulders jerked suddenly. “Huh? Wh…aaah!” At the exact same moment as Divider’s shout, the last remaining protagonist cried out in unison and collapsed with a thud. The screen faded to a dark gray, the GAME OVER text mercilessly large in the center.

  “Ah…ahhh…” The crestfallen Divider’s shoulders sagged as he let the controller fall from his hands. For a moment it looked like he would stay that way indefinitely, but then he shook his head and groaned.

  “And I was almost at the final boss, too…”

  Heaving a sigh, he reached out and ejected the game disc from the system, which brought the screen back to the game system’s menu. Then, putting the disc back into its case, he turned to Minoru with a strained smile.

  “Yo, Mikkun. How’s it goin’?”

  “Ah, um…very well, thank you.”

  Now that he could see all of Olivier’s handsomely featured face, Minoru noticed that there was a flesh-colored hydrocolloid bandage over his right cheek, as well as what looked to be some blisters hidden by his bangs and blue-framed glasses. He seemed to be ignoring Minoru’s gaze as he looked down at the game, but eventually he raised his head.

  “Hey, Mikkun, do you have this console?”

  “Huh? Y…yes, I think so…” In his current state of affairs, Minoru couldn’t even remotely afford any of the current-generation consoles, but this older system had been one of Norie’s favorites when she was younger, so there was one tucked away on the AV shelf in the living room.

  “Cool, then play this.” Olivier unceremoniously dropped the game into Minoru’s lap.

  “Huh…?!” Minoru looked up at him, eyes wide. “But you’re still playing it, aren’t you? You said you were almost at the last boss!”

  “Yeah, well…” Olivier shrugged casually. “When I get a single game over, I stop playing that game for good.”

  “Game over…? But you must’ve saved your game, right? Why wouldn’t you just start over from your last save…?”

  Looking as though he didn’t know how to respond to Minoru’s automatic question, Olivier stood up and sat down next to him on the couch.

  “…Hey, Mikkun. What do you think the SAVE function in an RPG is, really?”

  “What is it…?” Minoru mumbled. Unsure what was meant by the question, he went with the most obvious answer: “It’s a function that stores your progress in the game on a memory card, right…?”

  “Well, yeah, sure. But that’s just what it means to us when we’re playing a video game in the real world. What I mean is, what do you think that SAVE means to, say…the hero and the demon lord and the world they’re fighting in?”

  “Ahh…” Finally grasping the meaning of Olivier’s words, Minoru tilted his head and responded more thoughtfully.

  “I guess…it’d be like magic or some kind of miracle? Like in older games, when you entered a password instead of being able to save…didn’t they call those passwords ‘resurrection spells’ sometimes?”

  “Yeah, exactly. But y’know…” Olivier paused, and for a moment, there was a hint of intensity in his expression. “If that’s the case, why can’t the demon lord save, too?”

  “Huh…?”

  “I mean, he’s doing his best, too, in his own way, right? Coming up with battle tactics, sending his minions after the hero, that kind of thing. And sometimes, he does really well and wipes out the hero’s whole party. But does he get to celebrate his victory? No! Because the hero alone has the power to turn back time for the whole world. And he’ll do it, over and over for eternity, until it finally ends in the demon lord’s death. Man, if I were that demon lord, I’d get pissed off and quit right away.”

  Dumbfounded by Olivier’s speech, Minoru waited a few moments after he’d finished before venturing another question.

  “So when you said you stop playing a game for good once you get a game over, that’s not because it’d be a pain to start over from the last SAVE point, it’s because, um…it seems unfair to start over? So in the game world when you’re playing, as soon as the hero’s party is defeated, it means…the demon lord has won…?”

  Olivier grinned wryly, sinking deeper into the couch.

  “Yeah, it sounds pretty silly when you put it that way. But I’m not the one who came up with this whole ‘saving is unfair’ thing, just so you know. But, like…once the idea got into my head, I couldn’t stand seeing a hero who just starts over whenever he loses, y’know?”

  “Um…I do kind of understand where you’re coming from, I guess…,” Minoru murmured, examining the hero and heroine in the game’s box art with somewhat mixed emotions. Olivier snickered and elbowed him lightly.

  “I’m not saying you now have to play like that, too, or anything, Mikkun.”

  “R-right… Oh, but I guess that explains why you’re always grinding levels way more than necessary. So you won’t get a game over…”

  “Pretty much. It is crazy boring, though… But you can actually learn a few things from playing permadeath-style.”

  “Huh…?”

  Shifting his gaze off to the right, Olivier looked up at the high ceiling and answered with a sigh.

  “For one thing, even if you max out all your levels and prepare everything to a T, all it takes is one moment of spacing out for you to lose everything. And another thing… At any given moment, even the smallest action can turn into something that you can never take back.”

  Divider stretched out his legs and stood up, returning to his usual nonchalant self. “Hey, looks like the meeting’s gonna start. C’mon.”

  Minoru tucked the game into his messenger bag and followed after Olivier, though there was one more question he wished he could have asked.

  Who was it who first told you that saving is unfair?

  In the research room, several folding chairs had been lined up around the 203-centimeter monitor, one of which
was already occupied by Denjirou “DD” Daimon. As Minoru walked in, Searcher glanced at him from under his trademark camouflage baseball cap and gave him a brisk wave. Minoru returned the greeting and sat down next to Olivier. I guess Yumiko really isn’t here today, he thought.

  At that moment, there was the sound of the door suddenly bursting open behind him, and he turned, only to see a familiar gray pleated skirt fluttering in the doorway.

  “Sorry I’m late.”

  Accelerator (Yumiko Azu) bowed her head promptly and sat down in the chair on Minoru’s right, casting a quizzical glance at his frozen expression. “What’re you making that face for?”

  “I…it’s nothing, really,” Minoru mumbled, shaking his head stiffly. Mercifully, Professor Riri then clapped her hands together quickly, positioning herself near the monitor.

  “Okay, looks like we’re all here! Everyone, I’m sorry to call you in to headquarters so close to New Year’s Day, but it seems like the Ruby Eyes have no intention of taking the holiday off, either. So, let’s begin with a report on yesterday’s battle, shall we?”

  “Yeah, sure,” DD responded in his usual bored drawl, his fingers tapping across the smartphone already in his hands. A full-body image of a person promptly appeared on the large monitor next to the Professor. It appeared to be a low-light photograph taken at night and then digitally enhanced; the quality was a bit grainy, but the person’s features and physique were clear enough at least.

  Above the photo was a caption that read “Identified Ruby Eye Host No. 11: Trancer.” As Minoru recalled, Igniter’s number had been nineteen, so this “Trancer” was a Ruby Eye who had appeared earlier than Igniter—a veteran, so to speak.

  After waiting a moment for Minoru to get a good first look at the image, DD spoke up.

  “…Since it was raining yesterday afternoon, Oli and I went out on patrol, as usual. After about fifteen loops around our route, we caught wind of his scent. Since we were in Otemachi and Trancer was in Akasaka, he was real close by.”

  What? The moment he heard that, Minoru half rose to his feet. “Yesterday…in Akasaka?! Th-then that traffic accident really was…?”

  “Mm-hmm. It was the work of this man.” The confirmation came from the Professor, who was sitting next to the monitor as if she really was teaching a class. The expression on her small, childish face was extremely grave. “A Ruby Eye who can manipulate water… His code name—the one he’s given himself, anyway—is Trancer. He’s a well-known enemy of ours…a big-shot veteran Ruby Eye who’s been around for quite a while.”

  As he listened to the Professor’s explanation, Minoru stared at the photo again. Descriptions like “big shot” and “veteran” hardly seemed to suit the subject, who looked to be only around Minoru’s age. The half of his face that was visible looked rather meek, and his straight-fringed hairstyle was more typical of an honors student than a hardened Ruby Eye criminal.

  This young man really caused that much destruction…?

  As if sensing Minoru’s skepticism, the Professor continued her explanation.

  “Trancer froze the entire Aoyama exit ramp into ice, sending ten vehicles or so sliding into the Akasaka intersection, including a trailer truck. A tanker truck that was at the intersection was struck and exploded, a disaster that killed seven people and injured eleven more. Apparently it took a lot of pushing from the National Police Agency Security Bureau’s Public Security Division to get the investigators at the scene to declare it an accident… At any rate, that just shows how dangerous this man is. It’s not just that he has a very powerful ability—he’s also very adept in how he uses it.”

  “How he uses it…?”

  “That’s right. All of us Third Eye holders, both Jet and Ruby Eyes alike, came into our powers only just three months ago. I don’t think even we SFD members have fully mastered our abilities yet. And our enemies are the same: Igniter, for instance, was still developing his ability to divide water into hydrogen and oxygen when we fought him not long ago. I might even go so far as to say that that’s the reason we were able to beat him…”

  The Professor looked up at the monitor and tapped the image on the screen with her finger. “However, Trancer here is different. I believe that at this point in time, he has already completely perfected his abilities… DD, please continue.” She took a step back to allow DD to take the floor.

  “Sure. So, uh…obviously, by the time we got to Akasaka, Trancer had already fled, but we managed to catch a whiff of him. We pursued him by car, and luckily he went into Aoyama Cemetery. I figured with my rifle and Oli’s sword, it was the perfect situation to go after him, but…”

  DD trailed off, his eyes shifting toward Olivier’s seat next to Minoru, but Divider simply continued sitting with his arms crossed and head angled downward, not moving a centimeter. After a short sigh, DD cleared his throat and continued. “Oli was wearing the waterproof suit the Professor made him after our last fight with Trancer. The suit worked great, and Oli managed to injure him pretty badly. But…then he busted out a trump card of his own…”

  This time DD glanced at the Professor and ducked his head like a sheepish student making an excuse to a teacher.

  “Just like the Professor predicted, we found out that the reason he’d rejected our nickname ‘Freezer’ to go by ‘Trancer’ is that his power isn’t just to turn water into ice—he can also turn water into steam. We were ready for that, but what caught us off guard was that the steam he made was extremely hot, and Oli got hit with it face-first. While I was busy getting Oli out of there, Trancer ran away, and we lost him… Um, that’s the end of my report.”

  “…Hmm.” The Professor planted her hands on her hips, her pigtails bobbing from side to side. “Well, it is my fault that I didn’t predict that the steam he produced would be so high in temperature. However, DD—No, let me ask you, Oli-V. Why didn’t you report to me at any point from the time you detected Trancer in Akasaka to the point where you lost him in Aoyama Cemetery?”

  The Professor stared at him piercingly, but the tall swordsman was silent for a long moment. Finally, he stood up slowly and bowed low as he answered, “I’m sorry. I decided that DD and I could handle it on our own.”

  “Well, next time report it anyway and just include that assessment, then,” the Professor snapped.

  Though she looked to be only a little girl of around ten years old, the withering glare her dark brown eyes emitted was more intimidating than that of any teacher at Minoru’s school. “Oli-V, you didn’t really decide that you and DD would be able to handle the situation; you just wanted to take care of it yourself. And you didn’t report to headquarters because you didn’t want anyone to get in your way… Am I right?”

  Olivier stood still without a word, and the young commander turned her gaze away from him, softening her words slightly as she continued.

  “The Industrial Safety and Health Department, Specialized Forces Division… We may have an elaborate name, but all we really are is a reserve force chosen by the government to deal with situations related to Third Eye phenomena. I still don’t know all the details about the 3E Incident Countermeasure Committee, but it seems that they’re currently divided between two options: continuing to keep the Third Eyes secret until we fully understand them or releasing the information to the public and passing related bills for the complete neutralization of all Third Eyes. If they were to choose the latter, we would all most likely be forced to undertake compulsory surgery to remove our Third Eyes.”

  Minoru’s breath caught involuntarily. The Professor glanced at him, a cynical smile forming on her tiny lips.

  “The only reason our department is able to act relatively free of the 3E Committee’s interference in the first place is that there are bureaucrats and big politicians in the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare who think they can use the SFD as a tool in some political conflict. The Self-Defense Forces’ Special Task Squad, who worked with Mikkun and Yukko the other day, are the same way, but we never kn
ow if our budget or authority might be taken away without warning for any number of reasons. That’s why, at least among our own members, I think it’s of vital importance that we maintain a relationship of mutual trust. That’s why, if anything, I’m more upset that you didn’t report to HQ than I am about Trancer getting away, Oli-V.”

  The Professor fell silent, and DD stepped in, speaking with another sigh. “She’s saying to quit being so damn standoffish, Oli. C’mon, don’t you think you could at least tell us by now why you’re so obsessed with catching Trancer?”

  There was another long silence, broken only by the distant sound of cars passing on Meiji Street some ways away. Finally, there was a louder clatter as Olivier placed his hands on the back of his chair and bowed his head deeply. “…I’m sorry,” Divider said in a subdued voice, without lifting his head. “I still can’t tell you. It’s as important to me as my SFD duties… No, it’s even as important as stopping the Ruby Eyes from killing people. But I’ll at least stop trying to take him down by myself. ’Cause…it seems like I’m not strong enough to beat him on my own yet.”

  Minoru’s eyes widened. Hearing those words from Olivier Saitou, who was always overflowing with confidence in his ability to cut through anything, was something of a shock. Straightening up and catching Minoru’s gaze, Olivier shot him a bitter smile and said something that shocked Minoru even more.

  “C’mere, Mikkun. Hit me.”

  “Um…what…?!”

  “I punched you out the other day because I said you didn’t have enough resolve, right? ’Cause you didn’t feel anything toward the Ruby Eyes’ victims and stuff.”

  Instinctively, Minoru touched his left cheek, then quickly lowered his hand. “I mean…you were right to hit me for that, so…”

  “But I’m the same way. Trancer is even more dangerous than Igniter, but I just charged in after him for my own reasons and ended up letting him get away. If he kills somebody else now, it’s gonna be on me. I had no right to say anything to you when I’m just as bad, so…hit me.”