The Igniter

by Reki Kawahara

  “Correct. There’s only a marker there.”

  “What does this mean? We already found a dead body there.”

  In the back of his mind, Minoru could not help but think back to the scene in the basement of Nakakubo’s home, that flooded wine cellar and its floating corpse.

  At that moment, Minoru remembered the anxiety he had felt earlier, that there was a disconnect in their understanding of Igniter, and twisted his face in thought.

  Something is off. Something is wrong, he thought. But before he could find a proper reason for that feeling, DD, who had been running ahead, stopped.

  DD pointed to the left with his finger. The dark entrance to the fourth flight of stairs opened up out of the concrete wall. Igniter was just ahead. DD motioned with his hands that first he would enter, followed by Olivier, Yumiko, and then finally Minoru. They would surround him from all sides and attack.

  This was not the time to be thinking about unnecessary things. Minoru nodded along with Yumiko and Olivier. DD, in his black tracksuit, then soundlessly disappeared into the darkness, followed by Yumiko and Olivier in their blazer uniforms.

  After checking the hose from the air canister that extended up to his collar, Minoru took a deep breath and silently raced up the narrow staircase.

  After about twenty steps, there was a stainless steel door. DD, who was up against it, sniffed and nodded. Then, he carefully turned the silver knob.

  The door opened with a quiet click.

  From the crack in the door, a dark orange-colored light shone in, and with it came the smell of cool, damp air. In that air was not only the smell of water, but also a sort of chemical smell.

  What is that smell…? Minoru thought, as DD disappeared on the other side of the door. Olivier with his sword and Yumiko with her stun baton followed after him.

  Wiping his sweaty hands on his uniform, Minoru went up the last step and through the door. What he saw was a section of tiles made to look like light brown bricks and several palm trees beyond it. Between the hairy trunks of the palm trees an orange light waved back and forth.

  It wasn’t fire, just reflections from the lighting… In other words, water, and that chemical smell was the smell of chlorine.

  It was a pool.

  That made sense, as Ariake Heaven’s Shore was a water theme park with the goal of making one feel like they were at a tropical resort even during the winter, but…

  At that instant, Minoru finally reached the source of the disconnect he was feeling.

  Why was the wine cellar flooded?

  Why was the real Ayato Suka, who had defrauded Igniter’s company out of a large amount of money, not incinerated?

  Why did Nakakubo’s residence in Kaki-no-ki-zaka in Meguro have a mark for a future incident, but not a pin for an already completed crime?

  The answer was that that place was still being prepared. He still planned on burning the real Suka. The water that filled the basement was part of that preparation. The water wasn’t there to slow the discovery of the corpse.

  Water’s chemical formula was H2O. In other words, it was composed of one-third oxygen.

  That water was his fuel.

  “Professor! Professor!!” Minoru whispered loudly into the intercom.

  “What is it? DD and the others have already surrounded the pool! Hurry up, Mikkun!”

  “No…this is a trap! The true nature of Igniter’s power is not fire, it’s water!!”

  “W-water, you say?” Riri replied in a strained voice.

  “Exactly. Nakakubo… Igniter was infected by his Third Eye moments from drowning. If the source of Igniter’s power comes from his fear of death, then it must also come from a fear of water. Igniter’s power to control oxygen is fundamentally the power to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen!!”

  An instant of silence.

  “Oxyhydrogen… In other words, explosive hydrogen knallgas!!” Riri shouted.

  The principles Minoru had learned in middle school chemistry flashed in the back of his mind.

  When oxygen and hydrogen gases were combined in a 1:2 ratio and ignited, they would instantly and violently react, giving off high heat and a shock wave. In other words, they would explode. That mixture of gases was called oxyhydrogen, or hydrogen knallgas.

  In order to make the explosive gas, one would only have to prepare tanks of pure oxygen and pure hydrogen and open them both at the same time. However, by this method, it was difficult to get an exact ratio of 1:2. However, there was a simpler method that gave a much more accurate ratio of the gases, and that was to separate water through electrification. Water’s chemical formula was H2O, so when it was separated, for every O2 molecule created, there would be two H2 molecules created. A perfect ratio of 1:2.

  “Mikkun,” said Riri in despair. “It’s too late. Yukko’s about to rush in.”

  A fatal poison and life’s miracle medicine.

  Yousuke Nakakubo stood still in the center of a one-meter-deep pool, still wearing his work clothes, touching the surface of the water with his right hand.

  Deep in the mountains of Okutama, he had stood like this every day in the middle of a stream and resonated with the high concentration of oxygen there.

  Compared to the oxygen molecules floating about in the atmosphere, the oxygen tied to H2O molecules was both incredibly stubborn and proud. Even if Nakakubo tried to grasp them, his five fingers would not budge, as if he had gripped a clump of steel. They would reject the control of his Third Eye.

  However, in these past few days, Nakakubo’s power had made several far-reaching advancements. He could already grasp half of the oxygen in his aquarium at his apartment at once. In other words, he could separate water into oxygen and hydrogen. At this rate, soon he would be able to grasp all of the oxygen in the water that filled his wine cellar, ignite the resulting oxyhydrogen, and blast away not only Ayato Suka’s corpse, but also his entire residence in Meguro that the thieving banks had stolen from him like hyenas.

  After that, he would continue to grasp larger amounts of water, drawing a 16O oxygen symbol in the center of the city, and finally he would blow away the entire Ariake Heaven’s Shore water park with its pools.

  Plus, he would do it during operating hours. He would cleanse all those writhing foolish humans all at once.

  If he could get that far, it would be no exaggeration to say that all fourteen million souls in Tokyo would be in his hands. Every river and pond, every water tank atop a building, and all of the water piped throughout the city would serve him as a high-purity explosive.

  He would blow them all away, together with all of human civilization.

  “…Heh, heh-heh, heh-heh-heh,” Nakakubo laughed, and small waves spread out from his right hand across the surface of the water.

  But just then…

  Throb! …The sphere in his right hand pulsed.

  The pain left as quickly as it had come, but Nakakubo held his breath, opened his eyes wide, and used all of his five senses to search the surroundings of the pool.

  Nakakubo couldn’t sense the organic solvent-like smell of the black hunters. He couldn’t see anything moving, and he couldn’t hear any footsteps. Furthermore, it was just too soon. He had only just been approached by them nine hours ago. For them to find Nakakubo’s real name from seeing his face, to search his old residence in Meguro, to find the body, to see through his disguise as Ayato Suka and trace that to Ariake Heaven’s Shore… Nakakubo didn’t believe that they could accomplish something like that in half a day.

  However, at the same time in the back of his mind he heard the words of that woman from the organization, Liquidizer.

  “The black ones have already started to move.”

  Impossible, thought Nakakubo in denial. It would be impossible for them to track me down this fast. But the throbbing of his right hand just moments ago couldn’t have just been inside his head.

  It must have been a warning from the oxygen in the air around him. The possibility that he was al
ready surrounded was high.

  Nakakubo looked left and right again.

  Coco Island was, as its name inferred, an attraction based off the image of a southern island’s beach with coconut palms. The large circular pool was surrounded by a man-made beach, and around it real palms were planted.

  During the park’s hours, sunlight poured in from the glass dome roof, but now it was lit by only the orange color of its reserve lighting. The area beyond the palm trees was completely shrouded in darkness, and even with his strengthened vision, it was hard to see through it.

  If his enemies were hiding in that darkness, Nakakubo, who was standing in the middle of the pool with water up to his stomach, would have been seen by them long ago. If he was suddenly rushed, he wouldn’t have the time to stage an oxygen-deprivation attack, and he wouldn’t be able to deal with multiple enemies at a time with his combustion attack.

  If that was the case, then…

  He didn’t have any other options.

  Here, Nakakubo would use the true power hidden in his right hand, his explosive oxyhydrogen attack, to blow away all of the surrounding black hunters at once. If he dived to the bottom of the pool, he should be able to avoid the brunt of the attack.

  The problem was how to ignite it. No matter how much oxyhydrogen he was able to generate, if there was not a spark, he couldn’t make it explode. Is there anything he could use? he thought. He didn’t need a flame, if he could just cause a small spark, that would be enough…

  But then Nakakubo’s lips moved and twisted into a smile. His left hand moved into a pocket of his work clothes and grabbed onto something.

  Even if Minoru screamed out a warning, he wouldn’t make it in time.

  He didn’t know how much oxyhydrogen Igniter would be able to generate, but the shock wave of its explosion would be faster than sound. No matter how fast Accelerator Yumiko was, there was no way that she would be able to escape unscathed.

  Minoru could only think of one other way to save Yumiko from the impending explosion.

  This isn’t a matter of can or cannot do, Minoru thought. I’ll do it. I will do this.

  Minoru clenched his teeth, stood up, and then ran forward toward the pool as fast as he could.

  Here they come!! Nakakubo thought, feeling the movement of oxygen molecules before he could even see them.

  From between the palms on the north side of the pool, about thirty meters away, a black shadow came flying toward him at an incredible speed. Her long hair flowed behind her as she came out of the faint darkness. He could see a fluttering skirt, a stun baton in her right hand, and a knife in her left.

  It was his mortal enemy, that Accelerator girl.

  The fact that the ground at his enemy’s feet was sand worked to Nakakubo’s advantage. In order to create sufficient acceleration to work off of, the girl had taken several steps in the sand without using her power.

  Not wanting to waste the extra two seconds of time given to him, Nakakubo took his company cell phone out of his pocket, crushed it in his left hand, and threw it as hard as he could toward her.

  In the air, the lithium battery, which had shorted, let out a white flame.

  At the exact same moment…

  Nakakubo extended his right hand toward the water’s surface in front of her, and…

  He howled.

  “Ooooooxygeeeeeeeennnn!!!! Ahhh!!!!”

  The eye in his hand opened wide and let out a crimson beam of light.

  It was so hard!

  The bones in his hand creaked and his tendons stretched.

  The muscles in the back of his hand leaped up abnormally and split his skin, spraying a mist of blood.

  Oxygen.

  Molecules of oxygen! Heed my call! Purify!

  “Aaaahhhh!”

  The pain was so much that he felt dizzy, and a splintered tip of bone shot out from his right hand.

  But finally Nakakubo grasped it and clenched his hand into a fist.

  A red light shone brilliantly through the blood of his hand, and then…

  Pssh! The sharp sound of an impact shook the air, and the surface of the water instantly vaporized. A hemisphere of water ten meters in diameter was gone.

  The air wavered like a mirage where the water had been.

  In the space of air that girl was just about to charge through, a large quanity of oxygen and hydrogen molecules were separated, waiting for the time for them to reunite.

  In other words, for combustion.

  In all of nature this was the most beautiful, simplest, and most dangerous kind of combustion.

  A shiver of electric excitement raced up Nakakubo’s spine. Raising his broken right hand high into the air, Nakakubo fell backward into the water…

  …just as his cell phone, showering sparks, made contact with the explosive oxyhydrogen gas.

  Minoru ran.

  He knew that he was running, but he could hardly feel himself kicking the ground beneath his feet. However, he raced forward at an incredible speed and saw Yumiko’s silhouette dash forward toward him from his right.

  Bursting through the palm trees and across the beach, in just three meters he would come into contact with Yumiko.

  But just then, the water’s surface to his left disappeared with a strange rumbling sound.

  Igniter had separated the water molecules. At the same time, something engulfed in white flames came flying toward him.

  He didn’t have a second before the gas ignited and exploded.

  There was only one way to protect Yumiko now.

  It was not enough to activate his defensive shield and stand in front of her. Yumiko had already rushed into the explosive oxyhydrogen air. Even if Minoru became a shield for her, the heat and shock wave would easily destroy Yumiko’s body.

  He couldn’t just cover her…

  He had to take her into his defensive shell.

  The shell activated by the Third Eye in Minoru’s chest materialized about three centimeters away from him, and in that instant everything on that boundary that Minoru rejected as a foreign substance would be ejected from his shell.

  No matter how small Yumiko was, there was no possible way she could fit in that space of three centimeters. So normally one would expect Yumiko to be ejected. At least, that’s what would happen if Minoru considered her a “foreign substance.”

  If it was a random person on the street, that’s exactly what would happen.

  Only eleven days had passed since Minoru had met Yumiko in Akigase Park.

  In the back of Minoru’s mind, the times Minoru saw Yumiko flashed before his eyes.

  Yumiko, her eyes flashing as she stormed over to Minoru. Yumiko, her mouth stuffed with spaghetti. Yumiko, looking down beside Sanae. Yumiko, staring at the scars on her leg.

  And Yumiko after she had saved Minoru’s life, her back turned to him, crying.

  At that moment he finally thought of the sheer magnitude of the pain and suffering she held in her chest.

  He couldn’t let her die here.

  He didn’t want her to die.

  One day he wanted to see her true smile, after she had overcome all her painful memories.

  This is not for me, Minoru thought. This is not simply because I don’t want to increase the number of painful memories I have. …I want to protect her!

  “Yumiko!” Minoru shouted.

  Minoru’s vision to his left had gone pure white.

  In that instant Minoru wrapped both arms around Yumiko and held her tightly, activating his defensive shell.

  A suddenly expanding light engulfed them both, and the world melted away. In the scene devoid of color and sound, Minoru saw two black shadows rotating as they were sent flying. It was Yumiko’s stun baton and knife.

  But those were the only two things that were sent away. Even with his shell fully activated, the warmth and presence of Yumiko did not disappear from his two arms.

  At that moment the enormous quantity of hydrogen and oxygen molecules fused back together.


  Because they were insulated from the shock wave and the sound was cut off, to Minoru it looked like a scene from a silent movie. The white sand at Minoru’s feet was instantly blown away and the rows of palm trees were knocked down.

  The supersonic shock wave broke all the glass dividing walls surrounding the pool, and after colliding with the concrete walls, it shot upward. The light metal frame and panes of glass could not withstand the pressure, expanded, and shattered into pieces. As the glass shards floated in the water vapor resulting from the explosion, Minoru took his eyes away from the destructive phenomenon and turned to look at Yumiko in his arms.

  The black-haired girl stared up at Minoru, with her eyes wide, as if she hadn’t looked at the explosion in the first place.

  In those eyes, large tears suddenly formed, and her lips quivered as if she was trying to say something.

  Even after escaping under one meter or so of water, Nakakubo still couldn’t escape the roaring sound of the explosion.

  He felt a shock as if he had been hit by a hammer, and both of his ears went numb. His broken right hand was also filled with an intense pain, but compared to the storm of exhilaration filling his entire body, it was nothing.

  The sheer amount of force he unleashed with just one grip!

  He had finally awoken to his true power.

  It was frustrating that he had been cornered by the black hunters, but given this outcome he could even count it as a plus, as he was able to reach the stage of becoming “Purifier” far earlier than he had expected.

  Now not only air, but water was subject to his will.

  Just you watch, Nakakubo thought. You fools, you who have continued to waste oxygen in pursuit of profits unhinged from reality. I’ll teach you how humanity is nothing but a bane to this world.

  As the explosion wound down, the surface of the water got closer to him. Water from the surrounding area was flowing into the gap of the water he had separated earlier.