The Igniter

by Reki Kawahara

  Using the map on his smartphone, Minoru walked to the Tokyo Metro West Waseda Station and took the Fukutoshin line to Ikebukuro, where he switched over to an express train on the JR Saikyou line. As it was early Saturday morning, the train was fairly empty, and after dozing off for a while, Minoru arrived at Yonohonmachi Station, which was the closest to his house.

  For the nearly two kilometers between the station and his house, Minoru took off his coat and scarf and did some light jogging. Compared to his usual daily routine, it was only one-fifth of the distance, but he told himself that was enough for today, and so he did a light cooldown routine in front of his house.

  Minoru glanced at his watch as he stretched his legs. It was exactly one hour since he had left headquarters. Given the fact that he had waited a while at Ikebukuro Station for the express train, he was surprised he had gotten home so quickly, but all the same, it would be hard for him to immediately respond if he got a message that a Ruby Eye had appeared.

  If I really want to be serious about fighting alongside the members of the SFD, I really should think about moving in to headquarters, but still…, Minoru thought indecisively to himself as he finished his stretches and picked up his bag and coat.

  Minoru’s adoptive sister, Norie, was probably still asleep, so he had to make sure not to make a sound when he opened the door and went into the house. But before he unlocked that brand-new door that had just been replaced, he breathed in the cold air deeply through his nose and concentrated his thoughts on what he could smell.

  Minoru couldn’t smell that characteristic violent, animalistic scent that gave away the presence of a Ruby Eye, but that wasn’t enough to guarantee that everything was safe. A Ruby Eye’s scent could only be detected when their power is being activated. As long as Minoru lived in this house, there would never be zero risk.

  I know, I know, but…, thought Minoru, swallowing a sigh. He then turned the key to unlock the door and entered the house.

  As soon as he did, the sound of slippers hitting the floor suddenly came close, and in the next moment, Minoru found himself tightly bound.

  “Welcome back! Mii!”

  “Uwah, w-wait a second, Norie!” Minoru replied as he struggled to escape from her embrace, but his adoptive sister, Norie, wouldn’t let him go.

  “I-I’m home… But what’s the matter?” asked Minoru.

  “Don’t you know?” Norie replied.

  Norie, a thirty-one-year-old who worked at the prefectural office as an assistant supervisor, the spitting image of a hardworking career woman, had an expression on her face that could only be described as depressed.

  “This house is too big for just one person…,” she said.

  “Too big for one person…? Aren’t I always telling you that you should go ahead and start looking for a husband without waiting for me to graduate?” Minoru replied.

  “There you go saying those things again…,” Norie said, puffing her cheeks as Minoru finally was able to escape from her embrace, before going on to say something absolutely outrageous. “I mean, since we’ve come this far, I guess I should just go ahead and wait two years and marry you!”

  Thump! Minoru stubbed his right toe on the step up into the hall and shook his head back and forth as he writhed in pain. “Wh-what are you saying?! Two years? I-I’m still a high school student and…even though we’re cousins five degrees removed, it’s against the law to marry someone of the same family they’re adopted into!”

  “What…? Really?”

  “Really!” Minoru said. Actually, it wasn’t necessarily against the law for the child of a legal guardian and an adopted child to get married, but Minoru didn’t plan on telling her that. Before Norie could say something like, “Well, we can just unadopt you first!” Minoru put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around to face the kitchen.

  “…Anyway, I smell something odd coming from the kitchen,” said Minoru.

  “Huh? Ah! No! The fish!” Norie said, running off.

  When she finds a husband, it had better be someone who can keep tabs on her, thought Minoru as he chased after Norie.

  7

  Glug.

  Glug, glug.

  The source of the loud sound was coming from my throat and lungs.

  It was the sound of precious air, precious oxygen being pushed out and being replaced with water.

  When water flows down your esophagus and into your stomach, it serves a purpose vital to life. In that role it is nothing other than “the water of life,” but in this case, when it flows into your lungs through your bronchial tubes, it becomes a lethal poison. What a fickle thing.

  Ah, but really… This is incredibly painful. If I knew it was going to be like this, I would have chosen a different method. I could have used charcoal or hydrogen sulfide… There were many other things I could have tried. But to be absolutely sure, this really was the only way.

  This locked car, drifting on its way to the bottom of the water, was nothing short of a death chamber. Already, the two other passengers have stopped moving, just seconds ago. All that is left is for me to follow them. Then everything will be over. I will be free, and yet…

  Why is my left hand struggling desperately to undo my seat belt?

  Why is my right hand using my beloved Montblanc pen to try and break the window?

  Why is my freed body trying to slip out of the car through the broken window…?

  I am going to die. I already decided that I have no other options when I floored the pedal. I ignored the pleas from the passenger’s seat and the screams from the backseat and flung us into the dark sea.

  Yet here I am, swimming desperately with both my arms and legs.

  I can see the gray surface of the water. I will soon have returned. To that world of life, filled with sweet air…

  Air.

  Oxygen.

  I want to breathe.

  But now my arms and legs have stopped moving, and I begin to sink again.

  No…

  I want to live.

  I want to live. I want to live, I want to live, I want to live! Even though it makes me a coward, a traitor… No matter how much I might regret it in the end…

  With the last ounce of my strength, I kick the water.

  My outstretched hand breaks through the surface of the water, countless oxygen molecules gently caressing it.

  I want to breathe. I want to breathe. I want to breathe, I want to breathe, I want to breathe. But I just can’t seem to get my head above water.

  But at that moment, through the wavering surface of the water, I see a strange red light falling down toward me, and in my right hand, I grasp it.

  I feel a terrible, burning pain.

  “…Aaaahhh!!!!!!” Ayato Suka screamed as he leaped up violently.

  “Gah… Gah… Gah…” went the sound of his throat as he sucked in large quantities of air. As he breathed, with both hands he gathered oxygen around his mouth, as if he were eating it.

  When Suka came to a few seconds later, he realized that he was not underwater, but in his bed.

  It was the dream Suka always had. Wiping the sweat from his forehead with the sleeve of his pajamas, he let out a deep sigh. Even though it had already been three months since then, he had seen that dream as often as he did when he first saw it. Once every three days he was sure to have that nightmare.

  It certainly was a frightening dream to have, but…surely this was part of the process, he thought. He had these nightmares so that he would always remember his obligation, his obligation to renew his hatred and disdain of the garbage that would not understand the preciousness of oxygen.

  Of course, his is a necessary pain, Suka thought, and the deaths of those two, they were a necessary sacrifice.

  Once Suka confirmed that his breathing had returned to normal, he got up out of his futon bed, neatly folded the mattress layer and cover, and put them away in his closet. He washed his face, brushed his teeth, and got to work moving plants from his living room a
nd out onto the veranda. As he worked, he looked at the large map he had put up on the wall.

  On Monday of next week, he wanted to burn at least one, if possible two more pieces of human garbage, so that he could draw a beautiful symbol in the middle of this polluted city.

  “Oxygen… Oxygen…,” sang Suka, having already forgotten about his nightmare as he went about his work.

  8

  Saturday and Sunday passed by peacefully without event.

  Minoru didn’t sense the smell of a Ruby Eye, and he didn’t receive any calls from Yumiko, either. The only time Minoru went outside was to do his morning running routine, and inside he did things like help Norie, watch movies with her, and of course study.

  On Monday, December 16, the sky was overcast since morning.

  When Minoru had finished his morning classes, he, like always, went alone toward the cafeteria. The sky that he could see from the hallway looked heavy, as if it might snow at any moment, but the expressions of all of the students around were bright. The end of semester, midterm exams were over, and there was only one week until Christmas and winter break, so an excitement characteristic of this time enveloped all of the students.

  Minoru had visited that strange apartment building in Shinjuku and had become a member of the Jet Eye team that fights against Ruby Eyes just three days before. But after having returned to his daily routine, Minoru felt that all of the things he experienced in that place had quickly lost their realism.

  I’ll need to buy a present for Norie soon, but it feels kind of wrong to buy a present for someone out of an allowance you’ve received from that person, doesn’t it? If she could just let me get a part-time job…, thought Minoru as he lined up in front of the cafeteria meal-ticket machine.

  “Oh, hey, Utsugi.”

  Just then, Minoru was called from behind, and after freezing up a moment, he slowly turned around.

  The person standing there was of course not a Ruby Eye, but a male student wearing the same uniform as Minoru. After all, he was at school, in the cafeteria of Saitama Prefectural Yoshiki High School. But at the same time this wasn’t someone that Minoru had expected. It was Oguu, a first-year student from Class Eight who was also a member of the track club.

  A week ago, together with two upperclassmen from the track club, he had called Minoru out behind the school’s dojo to beat him up. As Minoru was thinking about how he should react to being called out by someone like that, Oguu changed his expression from the intrepid look of an athlete to a bit of an awkwardly ironic smile.

  “You don’t have to get all worried like that. I’m not going to pull any of that crap anymore,” he said.

  “…Is that right?”

  “Do you always eat in the cafeteria?” asked Oguu.

  “Well, usually. What about yourself?”

  “Same here. And you don’t have to be so polite, man,” said Oguu.

  “Umm… Okay,” said Minoru, taken aback.

  By the time their conversation reached that point, they had already made it to the front of the line, and after a little bit of thought, Minoru pushed the button for a Meat Udon Set. Before he got his Third Eye, Minoru had been fine with just the udon, but ever since he was infected by it, his metabolism seemed to have gone up, and without the two Inari sushi that came with the set, he wouldn’t be able to last until dinner.

  After paying with his IC card and taking the ticket, Minoru quickly turned to go to the food counter, but…

  “I’m surprised that’s enough food for you.”

  …Minoru was called from behind again and lost his chance to escape.

  “…Well, I’m not in any clubs, after all,” said Minoru to Oguu, as Oguu slipped a thousand-yen note into the machine and ordered tickets for a Chicken Nanban Set, as well as a large bowl of rice and croquettes. After he grabbed his three meal tickets and change, he immediately walked over to join Minoru.

  They continued to have a strange conversation after that as they picked up their trays from the food counter and moved to an empty table to sit across from each other. After Minoru took one sip of his udon while Oguu started to wolf down his food, he set his determination and ventured into delicate territory.

  “Umm… Oguu? Is Minowa doing well?” he asked.

  Oguu furrowed his brow, shaved so that it was just barely within school rules, and froze with his chopsticks held in midair. The sweet sauce from his chicken dripped onto his plate. But the way he furrowed his brow and frowned was apparently not an expression of anger.

  “Well… I mean… Sure, she’s doing well. Ever since she returned to school she’s been practicing with her club like usual,” Oguu answered and then opened his mouth wide and stuffed the chicken into his mouth.

  Tomomi Minowa, who was in the same class as Oguu and a track club member, had been attacked by Biter ten days earlier. Minoru and company were able to rescue her before she sustained any physical harm, but the psychological shock at seeing Biter transformed up close had a large effect on her, and given that there was also a chance that she might be attacked again, she had been kept safe at a hospital connected with Chief Himi.

  Tomomi, who after four days of hospitalization was able to calm down, had her memories associated with Biter sealed away by Chief Himi’s power and supposedly returned to school Wednesday the week before. According to Oguu, even on the first day back, she also returned to practice for the track club that same day.

  “Well… That’s good to hear,” said Minoru, lowering his shoulders along with his anxiety and took a bite of his Inari sushi.

  However, Oguu’s expression was still clouded. Staring at a tomato on his plate, he continued in a low voice. “She does seem fine…but I don’t know. She seems a bit different from before she got hurt.”

  “…” Minoru paused.

  There was no way they could let the truth out about the attack, so officially, Tomomi had been “injured while practicing on her own.” Oguu, and possibly Tomomi herself, believed that that’s what happened.

  While Minoru felt bad about having to hide the truth from Oguu, who seemed genuinely concerned about Tomomi, he asked, “Different how? Has her running form changed or something?”

  “No, it’s nothing like that. Her times haven’t gotten any slower, either; it’s just when she’s running…sometimes she has this really painful look on her face. No, painful might not be the right word to describe it… Ugh, I don’t know how to put it exactly…,” said Oguu, moaning a bit at the end, before popping the tomato into his mouth.

  Maybe he didn’t like tomatoes, because he grimaced as he ate it before washing it down with barley tea and looking at Minoru. Oguu scratched his head of shortly cut hair and then said in a rough manner, “…I know I don’t have any right to be asking you something like this… I mean, I had my upperclassmen come to beat you up because I didn’t like to see you and Minowa getting along… That was pretty damn uncool of me. I apologize for that. Seriously.”

  Oguu bowed his head so low it looked like he was about to stick his nose into the chicken on his plate and ignored the curious stares coming from the students around them. After holding that position for a little while, he lifted his head and with a serious look on his face said, “Utsugi, could you talk to Minowa for me?”

  What do I say to that? was the phrase that ran through Minoru’s head several times throughout his afternoon classes. Minoru knew that he couldn’t ignore Oguu’s request, as Oguu was seriously worried about Tomomi Minowa, but ever since Tomomi had been discharged from the hospital, Minoru had been intentionally avoiding her.

  There were two reasons for this. One was that if they talked, there was a chance that he might revive Tomomi’s memories of Biter that Chief Himi had sealed away. The second reason was because he felt incredibly guilty in a way he couldn’t even put into words.

  Right before Tomomi had had her memories sealed away, Minoru had made a promise with her. The promise was, “If we meet again on the banks of the Arakawa River, we’ll become fri
ends again.”

  Minoru intended to honor that promise. But at the same time, he realized that he was being deceptive. After all, he had made a deal with Chief Himi that in exchange for joining the SFD, once all of the Ruby Eyes were exterminated, he would have everyone’s memories of himself, including Tomomi’s, erased.

  Minoru didn’t know if that would ever actually come to pass. Fear might drive him to leave the SFD, or he might be killed in a battle with the Ruby Eyes or sustain irreversible injuries just like Yumiko Azu’s partner, Sanae Ikoma.

  At the very least, Minoru’s deal with Chief Himi contradicted his promise with Tomomi. From this point on, Minoru was going to fight as a Jet Eye in order to have the memories of himself erased from Tomomi.

  Minoru had been worrying about this for the past few days, and as a result, he half looked forward to and half feared meeting Tomomi again on the banks of the Arakawa River in the morning and ended up avoiding her at school.

  But really, what do I say to a request like that…? Minoru thought, sighing for what seemed like the hundredth time, just as the bell marking the end of sixth period rang.

  Minoru got his things together and left the classroom, walking down the stairs. He changed into his shoes at his shoe locker, walked out of the front entrance, and then stood in place, looking left and right. If he was going to head to the bike parking lot, he needed to turn left, and if he was going to make his way to the school grounds area, he needed to turn right.

  After a few moments of hesitation, Minoru turned right.

  Minoru made his way to the grounds after a few minutes of walking and saw that the track club members were already doing warm-ups. The female members all had on light lavender tracksuits and were doing stretches. Minoru spotted the one with short hair he recognized and stared at her from across the fence.