Just as he’d thought, her eyes really were red. What’s more, her voice seemed hoarser than it had been back on the fifth floor.
Does she have a cold? Or maybe an unseasonable case of hay fever?
Minoru came up with various possibilities, trying to be optimistic.
Shooting him a glare, Yumiko cut right to the heart of the matter.
“All right, I’ll admit it. I was just putting on an act when I left the fifth floor. Once I got down here, I ran straight to my room and cried like a baby.”
“L…like a baby?”
“That’s right. And I whacked this stuffed animal around while I was at it, too.”
“You…wh-whacked it?”
Try as he might, Minoru just couldn’t picture the self-assured Yumiko Azu bawling her eyes out and venting her anger on a stuffed animal. And he still didn’t quite understand the reason…
“But that’s where you’ve got the wrong idea!” Yumiko proclaimed abruptly.
“P-pardon?”
“I know what you’re thinking. You think I was crying because I felt like Komura stole you away from me, right?”
“Huh?! Uh, no, I didn’t—”
“Well, you’re wrong!!” Yumiko slammed a fist into the pronghorn’s stomach, then pointed at Minoru as if targeting the tip of his nose. “The reason I was crying is that I was frustrated with my own failure. It had nothing to do with you whatsoever, that much is for sure.”
“Failure…? But it was my fault the experiment kept failing the other day, not yours…”
“That’s true. It was absolutely your fault.” Yumiko rested her chin on the stuffed animal’s head. “But the reason I couldn’t help feeling disappointed and angry with myself wasn’t about the experiment. It was just that I always end up comparing myself to her. I’m sure I’ve never even crossed her mind, yet here I am, making comparisons, coming up short, and getting depressed all of my own accord… Really, I feel like such a fool.”
Her voice gradually lowered as she spoke, ending in a quiet murmur. Minoru, unable to respond, sat in silence, and she shot him another look.
“Utsugi, you saw Komura in the flesh, right?”
“Y…yeah.”
“Then, did she tell you what color your sight line was?”
“Yes…it was colorless, apparently. Su… Komura said it was ‘the color of apathy.’”
“Apathy, huh…? You’re consistent, at least.” Brushing away a black strand of hair that had fallen over her cheek, Yumiko gave a faint, bitter chuckle. “She finally showed herself to me, too, about a month ago. I think you and I might be the only ones who have seen her face aside from Chief Himi and Professor Riri. However…Komura wouldn’t tell me what color my sight line was.”
“Ah…”
“I’d imagine it was a color she didn’t want to talk about…but I can hazard a guess. My sight line toward her was probably purple…the color of jealousy.”
“Jealousy…?”
“That’s right. I am jealous of Komura. But…that started way before I had ever even seen that outrageously pretty appearance of hers.”
Yumiko sighed, her eyes wandering toward the window in the south side of the room. Tomorrow was New Year’s Eve, and so at this point in the late afternoon, the sun was already tumbling down toward the horizon, dyeing the light that streamed through the window a deep orange. Looking at Yumiko’s face as the sunlight illuminated it with golden edges, Minoru couldn’t help thinking that she was perfectly beautiful herself. Then, realizing this line of thinking was just comparing Yumiko and Suu, he quickly looked away. Yumiko glanced at him and continued her explanation in a low, quiet voice.
“The SFD began its activities about a month after the Third Eyes came to Earth… In other words, we started about two months ago, with only Sanae, DD, the Professor, and myself. Olivier joined shortly after, and then after that came the Komura siblings.”
Looking again at Minoru, who was listening attentively, Yumiko traced numbers in the air with her finger. “Sanae and I paired up and brought down seven Ruby Eyes together. But Suu has secured at least as many as that all on her own. She can serve as both backup and offense…the strongest Jet Eye in the SFD.”
“The…the strongest?!” Minoru repeated, his memories of Suu Komura flashing through his mind’s eye. Sitting in the car after she revealed herself for the first time, averting her eyes as if she was afraid of him. At his dining table, spreading rice and garnishes onto a piece of seaweed in her left hand with a look of intense concentration. And in his bedroom, sitting face-to-face, quietly explaining about sight lines.
Suu Komura, the middle school girl who always looked as if she could vanish into the air at any second—and had the power to literally do so… Yumiko was saying that this girl was the strongest fighter in the SFD?
“Your face says you don’t believe me,” Yumiko said, a thin smile on the edges of her lips. “But if you think about it a little, it makes sense. When she uses her powers almost to their fullest, all you can see are two tiny black pupils. And her detection radius is only about one meter. Which means unless they’re surrounded by something like water or mud, or they have some kind of strong sensor that doesn’t rely on sight, an opponent won’t notice her until she’s at point-blank range.”
“…And from that range…”
“That’s right. Whether she uses a Taser, an anesthetic injection, or, of course, a gun, she’s sure to hit her target.” As she fell silent for a moment, Yumiko’s smile shifted into one of self-deprecation. “The only reason the Professor put me into the battle last week against Igniter instead of Komura was that it was taking place at a pool… That, or she was just humoring my grudge against Igniter. Although, in the end, all I really did was nearly die and get rescued by you, huh?”
“What?” Minoru shook his head earnestly. “No…that’s not true. My power is useless on its own for anything but defense. If you weren’t there with your acceleration, we never would have beaten Igniter.”
Yumiko looked at Minoru keenly, a serious look suddenly coming into her eyes. “…I’ll be honest. Ever since we combined my ability with your protective shell and defeated Igniter in one blow, I’ve been thinking…if we could use that incredible power at any given time, I’d be able to win against Komura.”
“Ah…”
“The mission at the Tokyo Bay Nuclear Power Plant just proved that your shell is invincible against any attack. In which case, it wouldn’t matter whether the enemy detects us or not. We could neutralize any Ruby Eye just by charging in and body slamming them. For that matter, if we can confirm where the Syndicate’s base is, you and I could march right in and take them all out.”
The Syndicate… That’s a group of Ruby Eyes, right?
But Minoru was too distracted by the intensity of Yumiko’s words to focus on that question. Taken aback by her fervor, Minoru responded instinctively.
“W…win against Komura? Is there really any point in competing against another SFD member…?”
For a moment, he thought he saw a sharp flash in Yumiko’s eyes. However, it quickly disappeared, her shoulders sagging as the rueful smile returned to her face. “…You’re right. Our goal is to neutralize Ruby Eyes and protect people from becoming their victims. It doesn’t matter which of us individually has the most victories.”
“R-right…”
“Yes. It’s absolutely right, beyond a shadow of a doubt. But you know, Utsugi…the only reason you can say that so easily is that you don’t yet know how it feels to truly hate them.”
Though Yumiko’s voice was quiet, Minoru could sense an intense fire behind her words. “Hate…?”
“Yes. If they ever take away someone you care about, give you a personal reason to truly despise them…I’m sure you’ll understand then.”
Minoru glanced toward the southern wall of the room, thinking of Sanae, the Shooter, asleep in the living room on the other side. “But…,” he murmured. “You’ve already beaten Igniter. The Ruby
Eye who put Sanae into a coma…his powers and memories were taken away, and he’s back to being an ordinary person. Doesn’t that mean your revenge is over?”
“So I should retire from the front lines, is that it? Are you saying I should just settle for being a backup and let Olivier and Komura and the others handle the real battles?”
“Wh… No, of course not…”
“You know…” Yumiko’s eyes glittered as she stared Minoru down, speaking almost in a whisper. “On its own, my power isn’t all that useful in battle. Sure, I can use my acceleration to get close to an enemy regardless of their speed or distance, but since I can’t become invisible like Komura, they usually see me long before I’m within range to use a weapon against them. That means I can’t do anything against Ruby Eyes who use long-distance attacks or transform their bodies. You’ve seen that firsthand—I couldn’t win against Biter one-on-one… Without Sanae’s shooting to back me up, I’m as good as useless.”
But…that’s not true! Minoru wanted to cry out. Yumiko’s acceleration ability was plenty frightening on its own. With her ultrahigh speed, it would be difficult to pinpoint her even in close-quarters combat. She could use her ability on a knife for a powerful attack or extend it into her beloved motorcycle to make it move at over 483 kilometers per hour, jumping over dozens of meters with ease. How could someone with those abilities ever be useless?
But as if she were reading his thoughts, Yumiko shook her head lightly. “Sure, I can speed up my motorcycle, but I have to have a motorcycle handy to use that ability…I’m so dependent. On Sanae, on my bike…and now I’m trying to lean on you, too.
“…I bet the only reason Sanae’s Third Eye is hanging on and keeping her alive and breathing is that she’s worried about me. She’s probably trying to stay by my side because she knows I can’t fight on my own… I have to prove myself. I have to show her that I can get by without her now… But now I’m just trying to use you to do that. I…I’m so…”
Silently, fresh streams of tears formed on Yumiko’s cheeks. Burying her face in the stuffed animal on her knees, Accelerator began to sob quietly.
Her antagonism toward Suu Komura. Her intense hatred of the Ruby Eyes. Finally, Minoru understood that the state of her partner, Sanae Ikoma the Shooter, was at the heart of all these emotions.
When she had first brought Minoru into room 404, she said that she and Sanae had been the ultimate combination of offense and backup. However, Igniter’s oxygen deprivation attack had fractured one of their wings. Ever since, Sanae had been in a vegetative state, continuing to breathe only because of the Third Eye in her body. Yumiko believed that this was because of her own weakness. What’s more, she believed that Sanae remained in this state somewhere between life and death because Yumiko couldn’t fight alone to her own satisfaction, lagging behind Suu Komura in her ability to succeed in battle.
And now she was tormenting herself with the belief that she had to defeat a multitude of Ruby Eyes on her own in order to resolve Sanae’s worries.
Of course, Minoru had no way of knowing the cause of Sanae’s comatose state. Yumiko’s guess could even be correct, though it could just as easily be wrong. But it pained him to see Yumiko feeling that way—to see her crying like this in front of him.
She’s hurting, he realized somewhere deep in his mind. I’m not the only one in pain. Yumiko… No, Suu, Olivier, and the Professor, too…all of them carry the pain of their own wounds. All of us.
This concept was incredibly foreign to Minoru. For as long as he could remember, he had seen other people only as potential threats who held the ability to hurt him.
But maybe he had been wrong. Maybe everyone carried a fragile heart inside a protective shell, sometimes colliding and hurting one another. At the very least, he knew that he had caused the tears that Yumiko was now crying in front of his eyes. And in that way…
This person isn’t a stranger.
The feeling rose up in his heart out of nowhere, then faded as quickly as it came. Minoru held his breath, trying to hold on to the lingering traces of that feeling.
This is it.
This was what he’d felt in his heart the time he protected Yumiko from the explosion or when he and Suu attempted the experiment in his room. It was quiet and invisible, yet seemed to contain within it some strong desire.
“Yumiko…,” Minoru said quietly. The crying girl’s shoulders twitched, and her weeping abated slightly. “I think…if we tried right now…”
Yumiko raised her head slightly, her cheeks wet with tears, and Minoru looked steadily into her eyes. But before he could continue, the sound of a buzzer blared sharply through the speaker in the wall. Then it was quickly followed by DD’s voice, which sounded full of tension.
“This is DD. Oli and I were just out patrolling the city, and we detected a Ruby Eye scent on Kasuga Street!”
“Is it Trancer?!”
“N-no. I’ve sensed this Ruby Eye only once before… I think it’s her. Liquidizer…”
“What?!” The Professor’s voice cut in over DD’s, sounding strained. “Be careful—don’t get any closer to her! Just keep plenty of distance between you and follow her scent. Don’t let her notice you! Yukko, Mikkun…and Hinako, please come to the fifth floor at once!”
“How is your wound doing, boy?”
In response, Trancer gave a strained smile. “Please refrain from calling me that. We’re not master and apprentice anymore, you know.”
“Oh? But you must still be a novice to have gotten such a deep wound, ah…Mikawa.” A sarcastic smile painted on her red lips, Mikawa’s visitor—the executive of the Syndicate, Liquidizer—paused a moment before calling him by his name. However, the smile was quickly replaced with a frown. “Goodness, though, why did you choose such a flashy name?”
“Flashy? That’s harsh. Mi as in ‘three’ and kawa as in ‘river’; it’s a reference to the River of Three Crossings, which the dead cross to get to the afterlife. Haven’t you heard the phrase ‘raindrops fall from the Sanzu River’?”
“Hmm… No. What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that as soon as you take a single step outside, you never know what dangers await you.”
“I see. Well, you’ve certainly demonstrated that with this little incident.”
With another cynical smile, Liquidizer tossed one of the two paper bags she was carrying onto Mikawa’s bed. A bundle of gauze, a roll of bandages, and a small bottle of ointment rolled out onto the blankets.
Returning the sarcastic smile, Mikawa picked up the items and looked down at his own body. Bloodstained bandages were wrapped tightly around his bare chest. That was the spot where Divider had opened up three of his ribs two days ago. Fortunately, his lung hadn’t been torn, but it was still an unquestionably serious wound; even two days later, his chest still ached with every breath he took.
Unwinding the bandages with his left hand, Mikawa glanced at Liquidizer. “…This is going to be pretty tough to replace all by myself.”
“I’d imagine so.”
“…I’d certainly be very grateful if you helped me with it.”
“I don’t wanna. It’d be a pain.”
Having expected that response, Mikawa smirked again. He couldn’t really complain. After all, when he had come crawling pathetically back to the hideout from Aoyama Cemetery, the enigmatic woman before him had treated his wounds, even using her liquefaction ability and medical adhesive to temporarily repair his broken ribs.
Crumpling up the used bandages and tossing them into the trash, Mikawa peeled the clinging gauze away from the wound, causing fresh blood to ooze forth. However, the wound had already healed considerably in just two days. This was probably thanks to his Third Eye enhancing his body’s healing abilities, but the admirable precision of the cut he’d received from Divider’s ridiculous sword probably helped, too.
Mikawa slathered antibiotic salve onto the wound, applied the gauze, and began with some difficulty to attempt wrapping
the bandages. Then, Liquidizer shot him a bewitching smile.
“Oh yes…but I suppose if you’ll do me one small favor, I could be persuaded to help you.”
Without waiting for a response, she strolled over to the kitchen in the corner of the drab room and produced a mineral-water bottle from the fridge. Taking a crystal glass from the cabinet nearby, she poured the water into it.
“If you would be so kind.”
Mikawa looked at the glass and shrugged slightly. Pushing down the pain as he sucked in air, he puckered his lips and blew a light, thin breath toward it. There was no apparent change to the water inside, but a distinctive kshhh resounded in the air.
“…Done.”
At Mikawa’s words, Liquidizer tilted the glass in her left hand over the sink. The water flowed out in a thin stream, and she skillfully flicked the glass upright before the rest of its contents could be emptied. What remained at the bottom was a handful of perfectly round, transparent spheres about five centimeters in diameter. Mikawa had frozen them into ice.
Using one’s abilities carelessly ran a risk of attracting the attention of the black ones, but the handful of safe houses they had in the metropolitan area were exempt from that rule.
Liquidizer looked satisfied as she held the glass up to the light, watching it play over the spheres of ice for a moment. Then, she reached back into the cupboard, this time producing a bottle of Scotch whiskey, and poured the amber liquid over the ice in the glass. Leaving the kitchen, she sat in the single chair in the room, crossing her long legs. Mikawa forgot the pain of his wound for a moment as he watched his former master.
It was impossible to guess her age. With the dark eye shadow she wore and her red-stained lips, and the proportions of her body that was at least 173 centimeters, one might guess that she was in her late twenties, but her carefully controlled words and mannerisms suggested the maturity of someone slightly older. With her light brown hair done up in a bun, Liquidizer wore her usual suit jacket and tight skirt that were undoubtedly from a high-class brand.