“…Thank…you…,” she whispered, smiling faintly. Then Tomomi’s eyelids closed once more. Did her heart switch off again, having taken more of a burden than it could bear?
Putting his wrist through the shoulder strap of the yellow day pack that had fallen over next to the wall, Minoru put both his arms under Tomomi’s body and picked her up gently along with the blazer.
When he came out of the shed, Yumiko and DD were standing there side by side. Yumiko took a step forward and peered at Tomomi’s face.
“She looks okay.”
“…Yeah.”
He nodded. As he was wondering whether he should thank them, she said something unexpected first.
“Leave her to us.”
“Uh… No, I’ll take her home…”
“No, she needs to actually be examined at the hospital. And…she’s seen the Biter’s face. There’s a risk of him going after her again. Didn’t you even think of that?”
“…!”
The way she said it was harsh, but she was completely right.
Minoru didn’t know if the Biter had coincidentally set his sights on Tomomi as she passed through the forest or if he had been targeting her from the start.
If it was the latter, there was definitely a possibility that the monster knew everything from Tomomi’s name to where she lived.
But that only solidified Minoru’s feeling that it wasn’t right for him to do as he was told and leave Tomomi to them, abandoning his responsibility.
“…If so, then shouldn’t you have gone after the Biter instead of giving up so quickly? You can teleport with the power of that thing…the Third Eye, right? So you should’ve been able to catch him easily.”
Upon hearing those words, Yumiko’s eyes grew stern. This was the part where Minoru would usually shrink back and turn his face away, but just this once, half in desperation, he met another person’s gaze.
“…If I could have, I would have,” Yumiko murmured as if she were spitting the words out. After taking a deep breath and letting it out, she continued in a restrained voice, “We don’t need you to tell us to find the Biter. At that level of damage, he probably won’t be able to leave this area for a while… Well, if you’re intent on taking her home, I guess we can use her as bait to lure the Biter out.”
“…That’s not what I…,” Minoru shot back at her reflexively.
He bit his lip. Whether or not that’s what he was intending, it didn’t change the fact that Tomomi’s house was dangerous. But still.
“…Then can you really say that the hospital you’d take her to is safe?”
“Definitely more than her house is, at least. And we’ll guard her, of course.”
“…”
Minoru once again dropped his gaze to Tomomi in his arms. It seemed more like she was sleeping then passed out. There was definitely something capable about her for someone so petite, possibly because her whole body was well muscled. The weight of a human with a life.
But Minoru knew that weight could be easily lost on the slightest whim of fate.
“…What explanation will you give her family?”
“Mm, some deviant started to attack her, but people happened to be passing by, so she’s okay…or something.”
The one who answered was not Yumiko, but DD. Giving a quick shrug of his shoulders under the down vest, he went on talking.
“This isn’t our first case like this. We have the know-how to put her back in her old life after we get her properly protected and treated. That includes psychological care, too.”
“But if you say some deviant did it, won’t the police come to ask what happened…? And can you keep the police or the media under control? …Just who are you guys anyway…?”
Minoru had a feeling that Yumiko and DD were backed by some sort of organized entity, and he apprehensively asked them as much. At this, DD gave a wry smile and shook his head.
“Mm, we basically work for the authorities, but we don’t have the power to influence the police or the media. We can’t tell you details unless there’s a formal request for you to work with us and you fill out a bunch of paperwork, though.”
“Request to…work with you?”
“Guess that’s how it’ll probably end up… Here in Japan right now, there’s a mountain of Ruby Eyes with homicidal impulses. The Biter from before is one of ’em. It’s assumed that the majority of the rapidly increasing missing persons around the country are Ruby victims. By the way, the reason we call them Rubies is that the color of the parasitic orb is red.”
After a pause, DD continued to explain.
“On the other hand, there are many fewer of us Jet Eyes with black orbs than the Rubies. You’re probably the last identified Jet in the Kanto region. It depends on what kind of ability you have, but I think there’s no doubt you’ll be asked to work with us. By the way, Jet isn’t like the jet from a jet engine. It’s from the jet gemstone.”
“…”
Minoru stared at DD’s face blankly for a moment, then dropped his eyes to Tomomi again.
So there really were two kinds of orbs. The red ones were Ruby Eyes, and the black ones like the one buried in Minoru’s chest were Jet Eyes. Humans who had Ruby Eyes as parasites would start to attack other humans like the Biter did. Humans like Yumiko and DD who possessed Jet Eyes were put into an organization by the authorities—in other words, the government—and were fighting the Ruby Eyes…
It was hard to believe. It was more than that; it was absurd.
Minoru raised his head and asked in a hoarse voice, “…Where did the Third Eyes come from?”
At this, the small young man made the most serious expression he had since Minoru met him, pointing the index finger of his right hand straight up. Following it, Minoru looked up. He saw just a few stars twinkling in the gray sky above the treetops.
…Space?
…He was saying that…mysterious objects from space took humans as their hosts, gave them supernatural abilities, and made them attack people or protect them?
Give me a break, Minoru groaned inwardly.
If Minoru accepted that, the normal life he’d made the maximum effort to protect would be blown even further away from him. Most importantly, it wasn’t like Minoru had the qualifications to join some organization that battled evil.
After all—on that day eight years ago, he’d kept his eyes closed and his ears covered as he hid alone under the floor. And he’d been the lone survivor, sacrificing his beloved parents and sister.
“Hey, you all right, kid? You don’t look so good.”
At the sound of DD’s voice, Minoru widened his eyes with a start.
I’m not here. I’m not anywhere.
He chanted this incantation in his mind, doing his best to sever the pathways of memories that were beginning to connect.
“Oh… It’s nothing,” he answered, giving his head a quick shake.
He turned his eyes to Yumiko on the right, her mouth still tight.
They couldn’t tell him details about their organization and he didn’t really want to know, but Minoru was at least certain that they could do things he couldn’t. And he was certain that he couldn’t be near Tomomi Minowa anymore.
“…I got it. Please take care of Minowa,” Minoru said as if he were whispering, holding the sleeping Tomomi out in front of him gently.
Yumiko’s arms looked delicate at first glance, but she accepted Tomomi effortlessly. Minoru passed the day pack he had hanging on his right hand over to DD.
“I think Minowa’s student planner is in there.”
“Understood. We’ll use it to contact her guardians.”
“…Please do.”
Lowering his head a little, Minoru picked up his messenger bag, which he had dropped a little way away. When he just kept walking, a sharp voice called to him.
“Hey, where do you think you’re going?”
“Home,” he said, standing still but not turning his head as he gave this brief answer.
“Home… You obviously can’t. Weren’t you listening to all the things DD just said?”
Minoru had expected to hear this to a certain extent, but he shook his head as he continued to face forward obstinately.
“It’s not like there’s anything else I can do. You said so yourself, didn’t you?”
“Even if there’s nothing for you to do here, there’s a mountain of things we’re going to have you do from now on.”
A flustered DD interrupted Yumiko’s sharp words.
“H-hang on, hang on, let’s be a little more peaceful about this, Yumii. I mean, we just found a new friend.”
“Calling this guy my friend already is…”
“Whoa, just be quiet for a sec, I’m beggin’ you!” he shouted.
DD ran over the fallen leaves with a rustle and came around in front of Minoru. Under his impressively knitted eyebrows, he put on a smile as if trying to smooth things over.
“Um, so, there are a lot of things you want to know, right? If you come with us, we’ll tell you as much as we can.”
“…”
He definitely did feel like he wanted to know more detail about Third Eyes and the organization the two of them belonged to. But more than that, the resistant feeling that he didn’t want to be here anymore was stronger.
Minoru was the one who had created an opportunity for Tomomi Minowa to be attacked by the Biter. Even if she was thankfully unhurt in the physical sense, she probably had deep wounds in her heart. The fact that he had fallen silent and just let Tomomi leave all those minutes ago… No, the fact that he had talked to her for so long on that embankment along the Arakawa River three days ago was something he would never stop regretting no matter how long he regretted it for.
I can’t stand for anyone else to get hurt because of me. There’s no way, he whispered internally.
“That’s okay.”
“Huh?”
DD blinked as if he was actually surprised at Minoru’s answer.
“You’re saying…you don’t wanna know? I mean, all of this is completely unbelievable as far as common sense goes.”
“…Common sense is nothing but an illusion. Everything happens when it’s going to happen.”
“Wh-whoa… You’re getting pretty philosophical for such a young guy…”
At that moment, he heard a voice from off to the left that sounded like it had lost patience with this exchange.
“Enough already. Just use the stick.”
DD’s eyes popped out as if startled, and Minoru noticed his right hand twitch. The stick was probably the stun baton that Yumiko had been using. Now that she mentioned it, Minoru had the feeling that the left side of DD’s camo-print down vest bulged out just a little more than the right side.
Staring at DD’s put-upon face, Minoru prepared himself to stop breathing at any time. Then Yumiko’s cold voice rang out again.
“That’s how we should treat guys like this, guys who get a look on their face like it’s got nothing to do with them even after you’ve told them about the victims of the Ruby Eyes.”
“N-no, no, no, we can’t be rough with a Jet like us…”
“Like us? Don’t make me laugh,” she spat.
The sound of resolute footsteps continued. Yumiko came to a halt on Minoru’s left side, very close to him. She ordered in a commanding voice, “Face me.”
“…”
After resisting for about two seconds, he turned back to the left.
Still holding Tomomi, Yumiko gave Minoru a piercing gaze, her eyes like crystallized, superheated flames. As he reflexively averted his eyes, Minoru wondered in the corner of his mind whether he’d ever looked straight into another person’s eyes like that even once.
“…You lost your right to choose the moment the Jet Eye entered your body,” she said, her ringing voice strong in his ears. “Even at this very moment, Rubies are targeting innocent people. You have a duty to go on fighting until all the Rubies are wiped out!”
For Minoru, who always avoided situations where other people would reprimand him, Yumiko’s words were like a nail being driven into his chest. But amid that pain, there was also a slight rebellious feeling toward Yumiko’s overbearing tone. Minoru clenched both his fists and forced a rare protest from his throat.
“…It’s not like I accepted that thing because I wanted to. This is the first I’ve heard of Jets and Rubies. I didn’t know about it, any of it.”
“And that’s why I’m telling you to be ashamed that you didn’t know and to work with us to annihilate the Rubies!”
“It has nothing to do with me. People who want to fight should just fight. Now I’m going home.”
Thinking that he would only increase his painful memories if he continued this conversation, Minoru passed by Yumiko on her left and headed out of the forest. But Yumiko blocked him after he had taken a step in that direction, giving DD an order in a voice colder than the December night air.
“Use the stick on this idiot right now. We’re bringing him along to headquarters even if we have to do it by force.”
“L-like I said, that’s kinda risky,” he answered.
His tone was as light as always, but there was a hint of anxiety in his voice.
“If we do somethin’ like that, there’s no way we can persuade him anymore. I mean, the kid’s ability is still an unknown. Somehow or other, he came out of a fight with the Biter uninjured. We gotta respect what he wants here, so let’s talk things over another day…”
“If he sees the recordings at headquarters, he won’t be able to say such naive things anymore. Like how courageously Sanae fights, and she’s way smaller than him…!”
There was a name he hadn’t heard before in Yumiko’s words, which dripped with rage. But Minoru no longer had room to pay attention to it. Driven by an irritation that was unexpected even to him, he spit out in a low voice, “If you want to know, I’ll tell you now. If I use my ability, you won’t be able to hear my voice, and I won’t be able to hear yours. It creates a transparent shell that nothing can pass through. That’s why that sort of weapon won’t work on me.”
“Whoa… Now I get it.” His expression turning interested, DD tugged at the brim of his baseball cap and bellowed, “So that’s how you kept from getting injured even when that Biter guy chewed on you, huh? Those teeth can bite people down to the bone, though, so that’s a pretty major power if it can block them, yeah. This is… Mm… Hey, let’s back off here for now. If it’s like the kid says, then the stick definitely won’t be any help.”
“…”
At this, Yumiko gave Minoru an intense look as if she were trying to knock him out with her gaze in place of the stun baton. Then she let out a short breath.
“…It’s kind of suspicious, but it’s a little bit interesting if it’s true. It really did look like the Biter couldn’t bite him even though he tried to…”
“Let’s talk things over more peacefully on a new day. Welp, sorry for threatening ya, kid. So we’ll talk another day,” he said, lifting up his baseball cap slightly.
But Minoru obstinately shook his head.
“I don’t feel like talking to you two anymore…so I’ll leave Minowa to you.”
Glancing at Tomomi, still in Yumiko’s arms with her eyes closed, Minoru started walking this time toward the south of the forest.
When he was a few meters off, the two of them called out to him from behind.
“I’m going to give you just one final warning. The Biter’s seen your face, too, not just the girl’s. The possibility of you being targeted isn’t zero.”
“It’s the smell. Watch out for the smell of the Ruby Eye, kid.”
After coming to a halt for a moment, Minoru started walking again as he answered, “I can protect myself.”
Even so, as he left Akigase Park and headed for home, Minoru couldn’t help checking his surroundings many times. Just wondering if that man was lurking on the dim paths or behind cars parked on the road made Minoru’s
breathing grow shallow. The feeling of his neck between enormous teeth in that storage shed still clung to his skin.
But if he believed DD’s final words, Ruby Eyes including the shark man could be distinguished by smell. Now that he mentioned it, Minoru had originally approached the shed because he was concerned about that strange, foul smell that seemed to belong to a huge beast.
That definitely had to be the smell of a Ruby. It was a smell bad enough that one would have to notice it if it was within ten meters—no, thirty meters.
So at the very least, he wouldn’t be attacked by something jumping out of the shadows suddenly. But before that—
He just couldn’t believe that everything, including nearly being killed by a strangely formed monster, wasn’t some massive piece of fiction.
The Third Eyes were mysterious orbs that came from space. The people they took as hosts started to exhibit abilities that couldn’t be explained by known science. Ruby Eyes, who have red orbs living in them, were given not only an ability but also the desire to kill people. Jet Eyes, who have black orbs living within them, were trying to fend off the murderous Rubies.
All of that was hard enough to believe, but what was even more mysterious was why such huge events weren’t known to the public at all. If Ruby Eyes attacked people, then shouldn’t everything be brought out in the open to draw widespread public attention?
If Minoru hadn’t interrupted that twisted man the Biter, there was no doubt that he would’ve killed Tomomi Minowa. It seemed like Yumiko and DD had been tracking him, but they probably would’ve been a few minutes too late to rescue Tomomi unharmed.
That’s exactly why Minoru couldn’t agree with the fact that their organization was trying to deal with this in secret. If there were already so many victims, they should mobilize the police or the military and tackle this on a large scale, not coerce Minoru alone into working with them.
As Minoru thought these things with just a bit of resentment, he bit his lip slightly.
Why was he unable to decide he didn’t care like he usually would have? Was it because Yumiko’s reproach was sticking with him more than he realized? That wasn’t like him at all. The more he got angry and went off like this, the stronger and larger his painful memories would become. That was all.
The Biter Page 11
