“No…DD and Komura…!” Yumiko’s voice rang out desperately near his ear. With the two of them cut off from the world like this and Olivier occupied with fighting Trancer, there was no one to protect DD and Suu from Liquidizer’s attacks.
Minoru squeezed his eyes shut to think and made an immediate decision. “Yumiko. I’m going to destroy this metal shell. But once I do that, I won’t be able to make my barrier again for another three minutes or so. We have to end it in one attack as soon as we break out, or else…”
We’ll be killed. Minoru tried to say it, but he was interrupted by Yumiko nodding.
“I understand. I can do it.” Her voice rang with determination in the total darkness. Minoru nodded, too, and inhaled deeply, filling his lungs with as much air as he could. He felt his chest creak under the pressure, but he ignored that pain and focused intently.
Ba-bump. The sphere embedded in his chest pulsed heavily, and energy poured forth from it, filling the protective shell. The energy increased in density, flooding the inside of the shell with little points of faint golden light. The light gathered together, glowing brighter, and turned into a steady surge.
Minoru shouted a wordless battle cry.
The protective shell itself spread—no, exploded—in all directions. Minoru heard the thick metal shell being smashed into tiny particles.
Through the fading golden light and the scattering pieces of metal, he saw Liquidizer’s back as she started to walk toward DD and Suu. As the woman in the sailor uniform whipped her head around in surprise, Yumiko took one long step toward her, aiming at her back.
The air vibrated sharply as Accelerator charged without hesitation. Sparks flew from the Taser in her left hand, leaving thin blue traces in the air. Liquidizer’s face darkened as she turned her right palm toward the Taser.
The black baton-shaped weapon dissolved, dark droplets flying in all directions. At the same instant, a high-ampere electric shock zapped out of the reinforced battery inside, bursting over Liquidizer’s entire body.
Minoru watched as Liquidizer was blown away as if she’d been struck by the hand of an invisible giant, tumbling over and over before finally collapsing in a heap. Even as he watched this unfold, he still couldn’t move.
The Ruby Eye lay motionless on her side, not stirring a centimeter. She appeared to have passed out, but Minoru was unable to shake off the fear that this might be another trap. He stared at her warily. With her eyes closed and lips slightly parted, Liquidizer looked strangely defenseless. As he stared at her face through the falling snow, an unbearably strong feeling boiled up inside his chest.
Although they were all Third Eye hosts, the Jet Eyes and Ruby Eyes continued to fight solely on the basis that the spheres they possessed were different colors. In fact, if Minoru had received a red sphere instead of a black one three months ago, he might have become one of Liquidizer’s subordinates. And if Liquidizer’s sphere had been black, she might have been a dependable asset for the SFD.
The only factor that divided them was pure chance. In all likelihood, up until that day three months ago, Liquidizer had been a lonely, isolated person who feared the outside world, just like Minoru…
As this thought washed over him, Minoru heard Yumiko releasing the magazine of the pistol she had pulled from its holster on her right side.
Yumiko checked the amount of remaining bullets and loaded the magazine back into the gun. Then, gripping it with both hands, she pointed the pistol directly at Liquidizer.
“…Yumiko?” he said quietly.
“…This is our only choice.” Her voice was strangled as she gave a short reply.
She was right. None of the usual restraints they used on Ruby Eyes would work with Liquidizer. Whether they used belts made of aramid fiber or chains of titanium alloy, she would liquidize them the instant she regained consciousness. Attempting to remove her Third Eye was far too dangerous.
Minoru turned away, holding his breath as he waited for the sound of the gunshot.
Leaning against the partly destroyed wall of the abandoned factory, Mikawa watched as his former master was flooded with blue-white electricity and collapsed.
His first reaction was surprise. He had always thought the only way to kill Liquidizer would be with a flamethrower or poison gas or something along those lines, so he couldn’t believe she had ultimately been brought down with a single electric stun baton.
Still, he supposed, electricity was another form of attack that she couldn’t liquidize. It was ironic that after the black hunters had come prepared to kill them with guns and knives, in the end they had brought her down with a weapon meant only to paralyze enemies.
It was just a simple twist of fate. No matter how strong their abilities, nobody is invincible.
Reflecting on what would probably be his former master’s final lesson to him, Mikawa breathed in quietly. He planned to turn the surrounding snow into steam and slip away in the mist. There was no way he could help Liquidizer out of this situation. The wound in his left shoulder from Divider’s sword was deep, and though he had stopped the bleeding by freezing it over, it would surely open again if he moved too much.
And yet.
When he saw the pistol being pointed at Liquidizer on the other side of the van, he suddenly blew a thin stream of air toward the weapon.
The little sigh was far too weak and too far away to freeze the entire gun. However, it was just enough to obstruct the hammer, stopping it with a little click. Immediately, Accelerator and Isolator turned toward him, and he started to walk forward, mindful of his wound.
“You…” Suddenly, he heard a low, hoarse voice from his right. “Why aren’t you…running away…?”
Turning, he saw Divider, who he thought had fainted from the injuries the explosive ice grenades had caused, glaring at him with fiery eyes from a bloodstained face.
“Why indeed?” Mikawa shook his head vaguely. Up until now, he had always feared the woman called Liquidizer, leaving no room for feelings of loyalty or trust, much less affection. In the end, he had followed her only because it suited his goals of refining his abilities and growing stronger, in the hopes of one day realizing his dream of covering the world in frozen silence. So there was no motivation for him to try to save his former master now, knowing full well that he would probably die here along with her.
And so Mikawa smiled wryly. “…I don’t know why, either. Oh, that’s right…your princess is still safe. They’re taking extremely good care of her. Not that I have any idea what the top brass is thinking.”
“…”
Divider glared at him silently, and Mikawa looked away, walking onward. He went around the back of the crashed van and headed straight toward the gray-haired boy. As he pressed his right hand against his wound, he felt warmth growing there as he began to bleed again.
Having cleared the ice from her pistol, Accelerator quickly pointed it straight at him. But Mikawa paid her no mind, stopping about three meters away from the boy and opening his mouth to speak.
“Hello, I’m Trancer. Nice to meet you, Isolator.”
Minoru stared wordlessly at the Ruby Eye man—no, just a boy—who had suddenly introduced himself. He was still recovering from the protective shell’s burst attack and thus unable to use his Third Eye abilities, but the other boy looked even more drained of power than he was. Blood from his wound, which looked like a cut from Divider, had soaked as far down as his jeans, and his face was pale; he seemed as though he could be defeated with a simple push.
But however much he appeared to be a boy of about the same age as Suu, he was still the perpetrator behind the catastrophe at Akasaka three days ago. Minoru watched him carefully as he replied, “…Isn’t it a little late to be doing this?”
“It really is, isn’t it? …But there’s a question I wanted to ask you. You said earlier that all of us Third Eye hosts are afraid of the world around us, right? If that’s the case, why do you people want to protect that world so badly? Even after it’
s rejected, hurt, and opposed us all?”
“…”
Minoru didn’t have an immediate response. Yumiko, too, inhaled deeply without anything to say. The response that finally came was a woman’s voice, low and husky but with some strength yet behind it.
“That’s because the hearts of the black ones…are being manipulated. Just like…just like us reds…”
Minoru turned his head in surprise to see that Liquidizer had somehow regained consciousness, her eyes weakly half opened. But it seemed that she still couldn’t move freely, as her limbs were convulsing sporadically.
Unsteadily, Trancer hobbled over to her. He slumped to his knees, a few flecks of his blood hitting her cheek.
“That…that’s not true!!” Yumiko cried sharply. “We set out to stop you Ruby Eyes from murdering people of our own free will!! No…out of basic human compassion! Nobody’s manipulating our hearts at all!!”
“Sooner or later…you’ll understand. You’ll run into an enemy…who doesn’t fit into your simple sense of right and wrong…so easily…”
“Our only enemy is you!” Yumiko shouted, and she pumped the trigger of her gun.
But the moment the shots rang out, Liquidizer and Trancer disappeared.
More accurately, they sank abruptly into the liquefied ground. The bullets sank into the black liquid, sending ripples through it. Then, with the pattern of the ripples still intact, there was a grating sound as the ground solidified again.
Since, after some time, no red light appeared from below to signify the disengaging of their Third Eyes, it was obvious this had been a risky escape maneuver, not a double suicide. Most likely, there was a sewer system or an underground utility tunnel directly beneath the ground the Ruby Eyes had sunk into. This was certainly no coincidence. Liquidizer must have known about the underground structures when she chose the safe house.
“How dare she…!” Yumiko snarled, apparently still angry about Liquidizer’s parting words. She stomped on the ripples in the ground with her bloodied right leg.
Putting a hand on her arm, Minoru spoke softly. “Take care of Olivier’s injuries. I’m going to contact the Professor and get her to send help.”
“…All right.”
Yumiko sighed and put her pistol back in its holster. Minoru watched her back as she accelerated herself away, then turned and started to run toward the northwest corner of the abandoned factory. His fractured right arm wouldn’t do anything he told it to, so he reached into his jacket with his left hand and pulled out the small mobile communicator, awkwardly pressing the speed-dial button.
As the phone rang in his left ear, Minoru breathlessly addressed DD, who was looking up at him. “Is Suu all right?! How are her injuries?!”
Under the brim of his hat, DD looked unusually grave, and he lowered his eyes again as he replied, “…The bleeding’s stopped. But her breathing and her heartbeat are very weak. It looks like her skull and her ribs are fractured in several places. To be honest…her heart could stop beating at any moment.”
True to his words, Suu Komura’s face was whiter than the snow on the ground around her as she lay wrapped in DD’s camouflage jacket. Minoru dropped to his knees beside her, placing his injured right hand softly over her heart. Quietly, DD spoke again.
“Stay with her. I’ll go get the AED from the van.”
As Minoru heard DD’s footsteps heading toward the van that was lodged in the factory wall, the Professor’s voice finally came from the PDA’s speakers. “Sorry I’m late. What’s the situation?”
“L…Liquidizer and Trancer both escaped. But Suu is seriously injured. We need an ambulance…”
His mouth was stiff and his voice desperate, but the Professor sounded perfectly calm. “DD already called. A medevac helicopter is on its way. Mikkun, I need you to send me the data you retrieved from the enemy safe house right away.”
“Wh…? This isn’t the time for that! Suu is on the brink of death. I… There has to be something I can do…a blood transfusion or something—”
“Send me the data!” The Professor cut in with a pragmatic command. “I need to analyze the data quickly so that we can raid the enemy base as soon as possible. The Self-Defense Forces’ STS is on standby with a helicopter. But the weather is getting worse. We’re running out of time!”
“On standby…?” Minoru repeated. Suddenly, his face darkened, and he slowly shook his head. “If you had a helicopter of soldiers on standby, why didn’t you send them here? We would have been able to fight off the enemy so much faster. Suu is fighting against time for her life. Why wouldn’t you just postpone finding the base and—”
“We knew the risks of this mission. There’s a reason it has to be this way! Listen, send the data right now. That’s an order!”
“You knew the risks?!” Minoru was shouting now. “Are you saying this is all according to plan?! If Suu…if Suu doesn’t make it, will you still be able to say that?!”
Suddenly, he was silenced by a voice even quieter than the sounds of the falling snowflakes.
“M…Minoru.”
Minoru gasped, his eyes widening. Suu’s long eyelashes had fluttered open ever so slightly, and her violet-blue irises peered out through half-closed eyes as if she lacked the strength to open them any farther.
“S…Suu…,” Minoru choked out.
Suu smiled faintly. “…Don’t blame…the Professor… I knew this…mission…could put my life in danger. Besides, I…volunteered for this. Right then…I made up my mind. That if I…could give my life…to save you…I would do it…without hesitation. Because…”
Suu coughed violently, and a vivid red stream of blood trickled from her lips.
“Because you…you are the best hope…for everyone…with a Third Eye……and because…for the first time in my life, I…”
The rest of her words were drowned out by the sound of helicopter rotors whirring overhead.
A red-and-white medevac helicopter landed in the battle-torn front yard of the abandoned factory, letting out two men in matching jumpers. Apparently briefed on the situation by the SFD, they approached quickly and skillfully lifted the once-again-unconscious Suu onto a stretcher.
While one of the men examined Suu’s injuries, the other looked at Minoru’s arm. “We have room to bring one more person to the hospital with us. Will you be coming on board?”
Yes, Minoru wanted to reply, but instead he shook his head. “No…bring the man over there with you, please.” He pointed over to Olivier, who was leaning heavily on Yumiko’s shoulder for support. The man who seemed to be a flight nurse nodded and gestured to the other man to bring Olivier onto the helicopter, then turned to head back. As he walked away, Minoru called after him wretchedly.
“Sir…p-please save Suu. Please.”
The flight nurse glanced over his shoulder. “We’ll do everything we can.”
And with those brief words, he disappeared into the helicopter along with the stretcher. The rotors started up again, scattering snowflakes as the helicopter quickly took off into the dark gray sky. Watching it until it vanished, Minoru put the PDA back up to his ear.
“…Professor, please answer me one thing. Why didn’t you tell me how dangerous this mission might be?”
“Because if I did, I thought you might refuse to do it. Not for your own safety, but for Komura’s.”
“…I see.” She was absolutely right. He knew he would have almost certainly refused, but the fact that Suu Komura had been told the risks and had still agreed weighed on his mind. Minoru’s voice trembled.
“…I’m sorry. I’ll send the data to you now.”
He pulled out the small USB flash drive from his pocket and plugged it into the connector on the small communicator. With a few button presses, the data transfer was set into motion. As he watched the progress bar, his eyes blurred with tears.
As he chewed on his lip and lowered his head, a hand gently patted his right shoulder. Her snow-soaked gray skirt fluttering, Yumiko spoke q
uietly. “Utsugi, the public security department of the police will be here soon to block off this area and clean up. You should get yourself to the hospital, too… DD says he’ll drive you.”
As if to back up her words, the sound of sirens blared in the distance, drawing closer. But Minoru still couldn’t move, aside from his left hand trembling.
“Yumiko…” His voice quavered. “How are you still able to fight? Even knowing that Sanae…that your beloved partner might never wake up…? I…I don’t know if I can take it. We get hurt, we hurt others, and in the end…the people we started to care about…they just get taken away…? I can’t…”
“I fight because Sanae was taken away,” Yumiko replied immediately. Her voice was full of barely suppressed emotion, but she kept it quiet and even. “Maybe that’s just your average thirst for revenge, I don’t know. But I know that’s not all it is. I’m fighting for the things Sanae wanted to protect. And besides…I think I mentioned this before, but if I give up, she’ll be furious with me if I ever see her again.”
Minoru stood in silence, unable to reply. Yumiko put an arm around him and brought her lips close to his ear as she continued even more quietly:
“Don’t worry. Komura’s not going away just like that. I told you—she’s the strongest Jet Eye in the SFD. Both in terms of her ability…and the strength of her spirit. I’m sure she’ll be back before you know it.”
“……Yeah. You’re right…” Minoru managed to murmur a few words. Seeing that the data transfer on the PDA had finished, he put it away. The pain in his right arm was belatedly making itself known again, but Yumiko supported him with her left shoulder.
As they walked together toward the van, which DD had extracted from the wall, Minoru tilted his head back and gazed up into the snowy sky. The helicopter that had taken Suu and Olivier to the hospital had long since disappeared, lost in the light of the skyscrapers in the distance. But Minoru gazed intently in that direction, making a silent vow in his heart.