The Trancer

  “Not at all, Mikkun!” the Professor responded excitedly, obliviously dashing Minoru’s efforts. “Now we’ll be able to enact a mission that’s been impossible until now!”

  “Huh? A…a mission?”

  “That’s right! A while ago, we were planning to have Hinako go invisible and do some intelligence gathering about the Syndicate. But even though Hinako’s detection radius is pretty small, there’s still the risk of someone noticing her if she gets too close… But with your protective shell thrown in the mix, it’s another story entirely. Your protective shell even cuts off the scent that would allow others to detect you, and even if you’re found out, you’ll be able to escape safely. In other words, with both your powers working in tandem, you can sneak into a Syndicate safe house and find out where their headquarters is. It’s a reconnaissance mission!”

  As the clock’s hand turned past five, DD’s worn-out-sounding voice finally came in through the speakers.

  “Ahem, this is DD. It was a bit tough, but we finally managed to get copies of the surveillance footage for the day from Nakakubo’s hospital. The problem is that the guy who visited him was in disguise… He was wearing a hat, glasses, and a mustache. We can barely make out his face at all.”

  “Hmm. Well, I suppose that’s to be expected,” the Professor responded through the desktop microphone. “But having an idea of his height, physique, and gait will still make for very useful data.”

  Minoru watched the Professor intently, his hand pausing midair with a piece of pancake impaled on a fork. As usual, he’d been coerced into making snacks per Yumiko’s orders. They were just simple pancakes using a store-bought mix, but there was a trick to cooking them. As soon as you dropped the batter onto the pan, you had to turn up the heat or else there wouldn’t be enough gas and the pancakes would cook into uneven, hard discs instead of fluffy round perfection. It was a technique that Minoru had perfected over years of pancake making.

  As he finished up, Yumiko and Suu each took a stack of four pancakes, adding their butter and maple syrup with looks of serious concentration. Though of course, Yumiko’s expression was the only one actually visible, since Suu had reactivated her refraction ability, her pancakes seemingly cutting themselves up with an invisible knife and fork.

  As Minoru watched in amazement, each portion of her pancakes disappeared as soon as the invisible fork stabbed it. Apparently Suu’s ability could even extend to the tools she was using and the objects those tools made contact with.

  “…These are delicious. Minoru, you’ll make an excellent housewife someday.”

  “Utsugi’s code name is Isolator for a reason, you know,” Yumiko countered, already finishing her first pancake.

  At that moment, the communication system showed an incoming signal from DD. Apparently unwilling to let her pancakes get cold during the exchange, the Professor took a huge bite before speaking into the microphone again, chewing away as she talked. “Whah abouh the pharking phwot footage?”

  “Uh…it kinda sounds like you’ve got something tasty going on over there.”

  “Ho-ho!” the Professor exclaimed, gulping down her food. “You’ve got sharp hearing as well as a good nose, huh, DD? Mikkun made us pancakes!”

  “What?! No fair! Why do you guys get homemade snacks when I’m not around?!”

  “Fine, I’ll save you a bite. So, did you get any more information?”

  “…Yeah. The guy’s license plate number apparently showed up for a fraction of a second when he drove away.”

  “Great! It’s probably a fake number anyway, but we should be able to track his movements from today at least with the N System! What’s the number? Okay…okay…yep, got it! Thanks for going to all that trouble!” Ending the call, the Professor continued eating with the fork in her left hand while skillfully manipulating the keyboard with her right.

  Minoru’s brow furrowed, and he leaned over to Yumiko to reluctantly ask yet another stupid question. “Um…what’s the ‘N System’ again?”

  “It’s a network set up by the police that monitors the main roads in the city and automatically records the license plate numbers of the cars that pass by. Even if the number in question is fake, it should be recorded by the system anyway, so that we can track where it went and what roads it used.”

  “Ahh…I see. So we can use that to figure out where Igniter’s visitor came from and where he went…?” Instinctively, Minoru looked over at the Professor’s back as she tapped away at the keys. It was hard to tell as her pigtails bounced around on her small back, but their tiny commander’s speculation ability really was incredible. She had guessed correctly from a tiny hunch that the bank incident had been a diversion, figured out that their enemy had actually been visiting Igniter, and now she was even able to track that enemy’s movements.

  Just as Minoru thought this with a small, private sigh of admiration, the Professor suddenly waved her fork in the air without looking up from the monitor.

  “Mikkun, more pancakes!”

  “I agree.”

  Startled, Minoru turned to see Yumiko assenting with a deadly serious expression.

  “It’s really one of the greatest benefits of the Third Eye that no matter how much you eat, the extra calories will all be consumed by the parasite instead of turning into fat.”

  “You’re absolutely right,” a quiet voice agreed from a seemingly empty chair, and a single now-empty plate floated over to Minoru all on its own.

  4

  It was the morning of December 31, New Year’s Eve, and Minoru was already getting rattled about on the JR Saikyou line train.

  He had a feeling that Norie was growing suspicious about his frequent trips into Tokyo, but for whatever reason, she had seen him off with a smile and a “Have a good day!” without questioning him about where he was going. Maybe she’s got the wrong idea about me and Suu and thinks that has something to do with it…, he thought, hanging on to one of the overhead straps.

  Technically, he was going to see Suu, so that made him feel a little less guilty. Still, he got the feeling that letting Norie carry on with her misunderstanding was setting himself up for an eventual catastrophe.

  I guess I really should consider moving to headquarters…but how would I explain that to Norie? Minoru worried to himself as he got off at Nishiwaseda Station, walked along Suwa Road to arrive at SFD Headquarters, and took the elevator to the fifth floor.

  He still couldn’t believe his orders.

  “Huh?! Sneaking into the enemy’s base…?!”

  Minoru nearly stumbled backward in surprise, but the Professor just smiled and nodded.

  “Yup. It’s the reconnaissance mission I was talking about yesterday. We got a perfect hit on the number we got from that car in the N System. Using security camera footage, we’ve tracked him to a specific parking lot. The company that was registered as owning the lot was totally bogus, but there was a building nearby registered under the same company name. Most likely, that building is the Syndicate safe house we’ve been looking for!”

  Her voice full of excitement, she snapped her fingers and rapidly continued to explain.

  “The timing of this with the fact that we just successfully combined your and Hinako’s powers has got to be some kind of divine intervention. As long as you activate your powers some distance away, you should be able to totally avoid the detection-radius issue. Then, you can stay invisible as you approach the building in question, sneak inside, and gather as much information as you can! If we’re lucky, we might even find a clue that’ll lead us to their headquarters!”

  “Uh…I see…,” Minoru mumbled, thinking hard. So, in other words, Suu and I would have to be practically glued to each other the whole time? And one of us would have to cling to the other from behind for…minutes? Hours?

  “Um…wait a second…,” he said aloud, suddenly frantic, but then an invisible hand clapped him on the shoulder and a voice spoke up from behind him.

  “Very well. Let’s do our best, Mi
noru.”

  It seemed as though Suu was already on standby for the mission. Her voice was as level as ever, without a hint of enthusiasm or trepidation.

  “‘Do our best’…? But…” Alarmed, Minoru looked over his shoulder to face the spot that the voice had come from, gesturing frantically.

  “But if we’re going to go in without being detected, we’ll have to activate the shell far away from the building…wh-which means you’ll have to stick super close to me the whole time! Ah, I mean, um, not that I mind, but, uh…”

  “I don’t mind, either.”

  “…” Minoru was flummoxed for a moment before he rallied his thoughts and tried again. “B-but, um, the protective shell’s shape adapts to my movements, so…even if you’re staying close to me, you wouldn’t be able to walk. In fact, I think maybe the pressure from the shell could end up injuring you… I-it’s just too dangerous!”

  “No, I think it should be fine.” This time, it was the Professor who countered him. “I’m still in the process of analyzing the data we gathered yesterday, but to give you an idea…I don’t think your shell is the super-hard, solid physical barrier we thought it was.”

  “Huh? It’s…not hard?”

  “Of course it is. But it also has a certain level of elasticity. And it’s restricted to only one direction.”

  Minoru blinked, not understanding, and the Professor shuffled closer and held out her right hand. “Listen. When you activate your protective shell, some invisible thing is produced around you, a little over two centimeters away from your body. This barrier is literally impenetrable from the outside. Not even a diamond drill could pierce it, and not even a hydraulic cutter could cut through it.”

  The Professor waved her hand around near Minoru’s body, pretending to be repelled by an invisible barrier, then lightly brushed her hand against him. It tickled a bit, but he did his best to endure it and listen to the rest of the explanation.

  “But if something makes contact with you from inside that barrier, those limits don’t apply. When you produce your protective shell, your clothes are included inside the three-centimeter space… Remember when I had you try activating your shell with a baseball in your pocket?”

  “Y-yes…”

  “That ball had a diameter of almost eight centimeters. I was expecting it to be violently ejected from the shell to the point where the seams would be shredded up, but…”

  Grinning as Minoru’s jaw dropped, she continued, “But that’s not what happened. It seems like there was a little pressure, but not nearly enough to damage the ball significantly. So…I tried touching the barrier around the ball, and sure enough, that part of the barrier alone was jutting out. Which means that your shell has a certain amount of elasticity if pressure is applied to it from the inside.”

  “Elasticity…from the inside…?” Minoru repeated. With the barrier activated, he cautiously attempted to move his right hand outward, but since the shell adapted to his movements, he wasn’t able to touch it himself.

  “Ah…I think I understand,” Suu said abruptly from close behind him.

  “When I enter Minoru’s barrier, I do feel a slight amount of pressure. It’s like being wrapped in some kind of stretchy fabric… Well, no, not exactly. When I touch it from inside, it doesn’t stretch at all. It’s very hard.”

  “…What? It doesn’t move if you push on it from the inside, Hinako…? How strange. I was sure it would stretch a bit like rubber if you touched it…”

  The Professor crossed her arms and started to pace back and forth.

  “Um…” Minoru spoke up timidly. “In that case, wouldn’t it be better to postpone this ‘reconnaissance mission’ until we know exactly how it works…?”

  “Hrmm…so it’s not a property of the shell itself…? Does the elasticity fluctuate…? But what are the parameters for that change? It’s not time… Is it the hardness of the object being brought into the shell? I don’t think so…”

  Realizing it would take some time for her to work her way through her thoughts, Minoru attempted to sneak away, but a polite tap on the shoulder from an invisible finger stopped him. “Professor,” Suu said quietly.

  The lab coat–clad elementary school student looked up and clapped her hands together, apparently remembering the situation at hand. “Oh, right! Well, whatever the exact nature of the shell might be, if Hinako’s body stays in a fixed position relative to yours, it shouldn’t be a problem. And so…”

  The Professor strolled into the research booth and produced a strange object from the desk, stretching out what looked to Minoru like a heap of tangled cords. It had a series of wide belts that intersected in complicated-looking ways, with padding thrown in somewhere in the mix. There were also several sturdy-looking buckles attached. Overall, it looked like a device for somehow attaching something to something else, but Minoru had no idea what its practical use might be.

  “…Um, Professor? What on earth is that?” he asked nervously.

  The Professor grinned. “It’s a product developed especially by the SFD Equipment Department—the back-mounting harness!”

  “The back…what?”

  “It’s incredible! The belts are all made with military-grade aramid fiber, and the pad uses moisture-wicking materials that won’t get all sweaty. And the carbon-made buckles are ultrahigh quality and ultralightweight…”

  “But…what is it?”

  “Of course, more primitive versions of this tool have been used in Japan since ancient times. I guess back then they would’ve called it a baby carrier!”

  Minoru was silent for a moment. Then, he made another attempt to escape the room, this time at full speed, but he was stopped again by Suu’s hand.

  Lane six, South Aoyama, Harbour Ward, Tokyo.

  That was the location the N System had pinpointed as a Syndicate safe house.

  Leaving SFD Headquarters, Minoru was now sitting in the backseat of a black Delica D:5 as they drove south down Gaien Higashidori, intently holding his breath.

  Eighty percent of the reason he was sweating it out was, of course, nervousness about the reconnaissance mission. However, half of the remaining 20 percent came from the new equipment he held in his hands, the…whatever-it-was harness. And the other 10 percent was thanks to the silent figure in the passenger’s seat—Accelerator, Yumiko Azu.

  I mean, I understand that we need to have a backup for this kind of mission. But why Yumiko of all people? Wasn’t it the Professor who told me to look out for Yumiko’s mental well-being in the first place?

  The fact that Minoru was now partnering up with Suu Komura certainly couldn’t be helping matters there. After all, Yumiko already viewed Suu as her chief rival, and this was being majorly intensified by the fact that Minoru could bring Suu into his protective shell and not her.

  So why would the Professor have Suu and me form a team together? What was she thinking…? —Actually, it’s entirely possible she’s just doing this for her own amusement…

  As Minoru was caught up in these thoughts, the Delica came to a stop. For a while now, they had been trapped behind a terribly slow-moving BMW, and as a result, they had been forced to stop at every single traffic light. This was probably not helping the temper of the speed demon Yumiko, and finally, unable to take the atmosphere of persistently rising tension, DD spoke up from the driver’s seat.

  “Uh, so how about this… Maybe after the recon mission, Utsugi can carry Yumiko piggyback, too?”

  OH GOD, WHAT ARE YOU SAYING?!

  Minoru screamed inwardly. At the same time, Yumiko simply reached over to the steering wheel and pushed on the horn, producing a long hoooooonk.

  This was directed at the BMW, which hadn’t moved despite the light turning green, but instead of prompting the car’s swift departure, it resulted in the BMW’s side doors flying open and a group of angry-looking men charging toward the Delica.

  “Yeeek!” DD yelped, cutting the steering wheel sharply to the right as he pushed down on the gas pedal
. As the car screeched past the men, a series of shouts along the lines of “HEYGETBACKHEREWHEREDOYOUTHINKYOU’REGOINGYOUASSHOOOOOLE” was audible through the car windows. Accelerating and weaving through traffic, DD didn’t slow the car until the BMW had vanished from the rearview mirror. Then he unleashed another shriek.

  “What the hell was that, Yumiko?! Those guys were totally Japanese mafia!! That might’ve been the heir to the family learning how to drive or something!!”

  “Well then, they should’ve put a new-driver sticker on the car,” Yumiko retorted sullenly. Then, glancing into the backseat, she gave a calm smile.

  “I’m sure this goes without saying, but no, there is not a single atom in my body that wants you to carry me on your back.”

  “R…right.”

  “Besides, you already basically carried me like a baby in our fight against Igniter, so I have no reason to want you to do such a thing now. Obviously.”

  With a huff, she faced forward again. Then Minoru heard Suu’s quiet voice murmur next to him:

  “…Is that true, Minoru?”

  “Huh? Um…‘like a baby’…? I mean…,” he stammered, sure that anything he said could trigger another crisis. Luckily, as he was desperately shifting his gaze back and forth, the Professor’s voice came in through the headset in his left ear.

  “If we could end this little comedy skit there for now, I’d like to begin preparations. Now, the door to the building we’re targeting will most likely be locked, but as long as it’s nothing terribly elaborate, the lock-picking gun I set you up with should be enough to open it.”

  “U-understood,” Minoru responded, looking at the building’s floor plan that each of them had been given.

  The Professor’s instructions continued. “Of course, you should be able to confirm any Ruby Eye presences in the building beforehand with DD’s ability. I think it should be virtually unmanned, but if that’s not the case, we’ll change our strategy from reconnaissance to observation and shadowing.”