The Trancer

by Reki Kawahara

  The deep pulsing sound audible inside the shell ceased, replaced with a silence so dense that it almost hurt his ears. None of the noise from outside the building could reach them. Minoru quickly moved his right hand to touch the concrete experimentally. It was icy cold to the touch, rough like sandpaper, and overwhelmingly solid. He tried tapping a fingernail against it, but it didn’t leave a single scratch. Next, he made a fist and tried rapping on the surface, but there was no echo to indicate that the concrete was anything but solid.

  After about half a minute, when they had more or less gathered all the information they were going to get in this situation, Minoru began to feel suffocated. He turned his head toward Suu. “Ready? I’m going to bring back the shell,” he whispered.

  Suu’s response was immediate and just as quiet. “Ah— Change your posture a bit before you do it?”

  “Um…sure.” Minoru wasn’t sure what the purpose of this strange command was, but he did as he was told, shifting his hands down toward the front of his stomach before he reactivated the protective shell.

  Whump. He felt his hands being pushed into his abdomen, though not enough to hurt. Then he saw something unexpected. The re-formed barrier had pushed aside the concrete in the space where Minoru’s hands had shifted. The concrete, which was about as hard as natural rock, had a new hole in it as if it had been scooped out with a spoon.

  “Wh…what the…?!” Minoru cried, breathing in the air provided by the shell. Suu responded slowly, as if lost in deep thought.

  “You should understand the nature of your protective shell better than I do, Minoru. When you activate it, foreign objects that exist within its boundary line are pushed aside… When you changed your posture, the radius of the barrier changed, too, so it pushed away that area of the concrete.”

  “Ah…s-so that means…” Blinking repeatedly, Minoru stared at the wall in front of him. “We can expand this space if I move my body while deactivating and reactivating the shell…?!”

  “…That’s the only method I can think of. It’s too solid for us to do anything about it with our own physical strength. But…” Suu’s voice faded for a moment, and Minoru looked over his shoulder at her, but she quickly continued, “…No, it’s nothing. Give it a try, Minoru.”

  “O-okay.” Minoru nodded, counted to three again, and deactivated the protective shell. Then he pushed up against the concrete with both hands and formed the barrier again.

  This time, he felt sure he heard the sound of the concrete creaking. This was probably just a figment of his imagination, but in reality, he could indeed see small fissures spreading from where the concrete had been pushed in by his hands. The pressure he felt when he reproduced the shell this time was much stronger, too, but still not enough to cause any pain.

  This is going to work! Minoru thought, clenching his fists, but then Suu spoke with some sort of anxiety still lingering in her voice.

  “…I wonder why there’s recoil…”

  “Huh? Recoil…?”

  “Yes. When you produce the shell, it pushes the concrete back, but it feels as though we’re being pushed, too. Not enough to cause any damage, but…”

  Suu sank back into silence, and Minoru frowned. Try as he might, he couldn’t quite figure out what Suu was so worried about. The feeling of pressure was certainly unpleasant, but it was still well within the range of being physically bearable. He figured it was best to ignore it and focus on escaping as quickly as possible.

  “Um, is it okay if I keep going?”

  “…Go ahead.”

  Once again, Minoru deactivated the shell, shifted his body, and activated it again.

  Crack! The hole in the concrete expanded again, now almost twice as large as it had been before. Without pausing for conversation, Minoru continued working. Before long, instead of his hands alone, he began to move his feet and the rest of his body as much as he could in his efforts to drill forward.

  After repeating this process about ten times, though, Minoru finally understood the reason for Suu’s concern. “Huh…? I’m being pushed back…”

  The size of the gap in the concrete had expanded from a three-centimeter radius around their bodies to a long, narrow ellipsis, shaped like a cocoon. The wall was so full of cracks that it was beginning to look like old pottery. And the surface, perhaps because of all the pressure, was beginning to look a bit glossy.

  However, when Minoru tried to expand the hole farther by pushing his hands forward and activating the shell again, he was repelled back toward the inside. Panicking, he pushed against the wall with all his strength this time as he activated the barrier. But the results were the same. As soon as he produced the shell, his hands were pushed back instantly, without denting the wall at all.

  “…I knew it…,” Suu murmured.

  “What do you mean, ‘I knew it’?!” Minoru asked, disconcerted. “Why did it stop working all of a sudden?”

  “I think the space may have gotten too large. Think about it… Normally, when you’ve produced your shell at headquarters and such, it hasn’t made a hole in the floor or anything, right?”

  “Right… My body was always sort of lifted upward.”

  “The same thing is happening now. If there’s enough space, and the mass of the object in question is large enough, the repellent force will be applied to you instead of the object. Which means…we won’t be able to use that method to expand the hole any farther.”

  “But…that can’t be!” Unwilling to give up, Minoru threw himself against the wall with both hands and feet as he activated the shell again, but the results were the same—he was simply pushed back with equal force.

  As he took quick, shallow breaths to stave off the panic that threatened to creep up on him again, Suu spoke quietly. “This is bad… It’s already been twenty-five minutes since we got sealed up in here. If the Professor was quick to send people after us, they’re going to get here soon.”

  “What? It’s been that long already…?” Flicking the LED light in his left hand around the wall, Minoru impatiently located the biggest crack and aimed a strike at it with his right hand. Though his ability was a defensive one, his punch while his protective shell was activated was fairly powerful. Since he didn’t have to be afraid of hurting his hand, he could use all his strength, so he could easily put a dent in an iron plate, for instance.

  However, since he didn’t have enough room for a proper windup in this small space, his punch hit the wall with a thud and failed to cause any damage. The concrete wall that blocked them in remained the same, without so much as a single fragment falling to the floor.

  “Damn it…!” Minoru cursed. Suu gently put a hand on his arm.

  “We can’t break it. The compression is actually making the concrete even harder.”

  “…Yeah, it seems that way…” Minoru sighed deeply and leaned his forehead against the wall with a thud. “I guess this is as far as we’re getting… All we can do now is wait for help. I’m sure Oli-V will be able to cut through this wall…” With his ability, Divider Olivier Saitou’s sword would slice up the block of concrete like butter and free them in no time.

  We’ll just have to wait. Minoru resigned himself to a long period of standby. But at that moment, Suu spoke from his back with a decisiveness he had never heard in her voice before.

  “…No. We can’t let any of them come near this place.”

  “Huh…?”

  “If Liquidizer is lying in wait, they’ll all be killed. The only way that Ruby Eye could ever be defeated is a surprise attack. There’s a reason we can’t beat her.”

  Taken aback by Suu’s uncharacteristically clear, intense tone, Minoru widened his eyes. “I don’t believe it… No matter how strong she might be, I’m sure Oli-V, DD, and Yumiko together could—”

  “They would lose. I think you might be the only person who could take on Liquidizer, Minoru. That’s why the Professor assigned you to this mission. We have to get you out before it turns into a battle even…if
it’s just you alone…”

  Alone? Minoru shook his head. It didn’t make sense. As long as they were bound together by the harness and his protective shell, they were in the same boat. There was no way one of them was getting out without the other. “Just me? There’s no way—”

  But Suu interrupted him by lightly putting her arms around his shoulders. “No, there is one way. A single method that can get you out of this place, right now.”

  “What…? Of course there isn’t. It’s not like we have a drill or explosives or anything…”

  Suu’s next statement caught him completely by surprise. “You’ve seen it before, too. The Third Eyes…disengaging.”

  “Dis…engaging?” Minoru repeated, dumbfounded. Before he could fully understand the meaning of the phrase, a memory came back to him all at once.

  Late at night. A large figure rampaging wildly in an underground parking lot engulfed in flames. Most of the body had been hideously burned to the point of carbonization, and what’s more, most of the head had been blown off.

  Suddenly, there was a burst of red light from the remains of the body’s neck. It shot straight up with ferocious speed, opening a huge hole in the ceiling of the parking lot, then streaking high into the night sky before dissolving among the stars.

  The Third Eye “disengaging.”

  When a Third Eye host’s vital functions ceased, or the Third Eye was removed from the host via surgery, the Third Eye parasite would shoot up toward the sky, returning to the same place it had come from.

  Suu continued to speak as Minoru listened numbly. “When the SFD performs Third Eye removal surgery, it’s often done in an operating room in the back of a large vehicle with a roof that can open and shut. But a while ago, when a different government-based research team attempted to remove a red Third Eye from a dying host, it broke through a triple-alloy barrier and the fifteen floors above them, leaving huge holes in the ceiling of each. Nothing can stop a Third Eye disengaging to the sky. Not even nine meters of concrete—”

  “What…are you saying?” Minoru interrupted in a pained voice, unable to listen any longer. “Are you trying to suggest that we should attempt to perform Third Eye removal surgery right here so that the exodus phenomenon will blow a hole in the concrete? Don’t be ridiculous! We don’t have an anesthetic or anything to stop the bleeding… And if it failed, you wouldn’t be able to fight anymore!”

  Minoru couldn’t believe he had to explain his objections to such an out-of-the-question idea. But Refractor responded in an even tone. “Minoru. Even under ideal circumstances, my Third Eye can’t be surgically removed.”

  “Huh…?”

  “My Third Eye parasite is inside my brain… It’s fused with my thalamus. No surgery can possibly detach it. So…”

  “What do you mean, ‘so’?! What are you saying?!” Suu’s arms were still entwined around Minoru’s neck, and he grabbed her right hand instinctively. “That just makes your plan even more ridiculous! Even if we were able to trigger Third Eye exodus and break through the concrete, it’s pointless if we wouldn’t get out alive!”

  “But you would.”

  “I’m telling you that doesn’t mean anything!” Minoru shouted, squeezing her hand more tightly. “I… All I can do is shut myself away in an invisible barrier! You’re a hundred times more important to the SFD—to the battle against Ruby Eyes! Getting me out of here isn’t even remotely worth you losing your life!”

  His voice cracked as he choked out the words desperately, but Suu’s voice in response was still thoroughly calm.

  “No, that’s not true. Your ability has so much more potential than you think it does. You could protect everyone from Liquidizer’s attacks. And on top of that, the data we copied before must contain information about the Syndicate’s headquarters. If we find out where that is, the 3E Committee would definitely take action. You’d be able to protect everyone and bring down our enemies… Besides, if I can set you free from this prison, that’s already worth more than enough to me.”

  “Th…that’s not nearly a good enough reason to just sacrifice your life!”

  Minoru shook his head furiously, continuing in a loud, shaky voice. “That’s it…we can use mine. My Third Eye is just in my sternum. If we gouge it out, the wound wouldn’t be fatal. We can escape without anybody having to die! Doesn’t that make much more sense?!”

  Minoru unzipped his jacket with his left hand and started to pull up his undershirt. But this time, Suu’s left hand covered his to hold him back. Her slim white fingers stopped his impulsive action with a quiet strength, and she spoke in a voice that held equally strong conviction.

  “I wouldn’t be able to protect Yumiko and Olivier and the others.”

  Her words startled Minoru. Until now, Suu had always referred to the other SFD members by their last names or code names. The reason she was saying their names freely now was not lost on Minoru, but he pushed that thought aside.

  “I-I can’t protect them, either! I can’t even break us out of this stupid floor! I…I don’t have any of the power you’re saying I do! All I have is a shell that I can use to run away and hide…!”

  Click.

  His desperate cries were interrupted by a snapping sound, then another. At the same time, the weight on his back started to become lighter. Suu was undoing the buckles of the harness that held them together. Even the straps around her waist that she had claimed she couldn’t reach were unfastened, and her body heat on Minoru’s back faded away.

  “What are you…? No, stop! There has to be another way. I’m sure we can come up with something else if we think harder!”

  “That may be true. But we don’t have time to keep thinking anymore.” Abruptly, Suu put her hands on his shoulders and turned him around. As he faced her, his protective shell shifted around them.

  From point-blank range, Suu’s deep violet eyes stared directly into Minoru’s. There was no fear or impatience in her eyes. They simply shone with intense determination, and her voice, too, was full of resolve. “Minoru…I care about them. I love all the members of the SFD. I was always too cowardly to show myself around them, but still…they were my family. Please, Minoru…protect them.”

  “But…” Minoru still shook his head and replied pleadingly, “But I…I can’t. If I sacrifice you to save Yumiko and the others, I…I can’t just go on fighting after that as if nothing happened…”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll forget.” Suu smiled a little. “We’ve barely known each other for three days. I’m sure in another three, you’ll be able to forget all about me.”

  “O…of course I won’t!” Minoru cried, reaching out to take hold of her slim shoulders.

  But before he could reach her, her violet eyes fluttered shut, there was a soft whooshing noise, and Suu vanished alone. No matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t even find the black dots of her pupils. In the faint illumination of the LED light, Minoru stared at the spot where Suu’s eyes should be.

  “Suu…,” he whispered desperately, his voice breaking. “You said my sight line was light gray…the color of apathy mixed with a trace of fear, right? It’s true that I am afraid of other people. I don’t want to get involved with them or get close to them… But that’s only because I’m afraid of making more memories! Suu, you…you’re already burned deep into my memory. I could never forget you!”

  For a moment, silence filled the small gray room. Finally, Suu replied in a voice that trembled slightly:

  “…Thank you.”

  “Wh…”

  “Ah…even with the light blocked out like this, I can still see your sight line. It’s beautiful…a warm color…I haven’t seen it for so long…”

  Suddenly, Minoru felt her soft hands on his own. Then, something indescribably soft and a little warm lightly touched his lips. Once it left, a quiet voice reached his ears.

  “If you see my brother, just tell him…I’m going on ahead. Good-bye, Minoru.”

  Immediately, he felt a powerful im
pact on his chest. Suu had pushed him away with one hand as hard as she could, he realized instinctively. The instant his subconscious recognized the strong rejection implied by that action, whatever force had been connecting them and allowing them to share their abilities was severed.

  And the Refractor, Suu Komura, was forced out of the protective shell toward the concrete wall at a terrible speed.

  The snow was falling in earnest now. Soaking the asphalt black, it now began to pile up and cover the ground in white. It was still only about 3:00 p.m., but the light was already fading from the sky, and the temperature began to dive precipitously. Even if Mikawa didn’t use his abilities tonight, the frozen streets were sure to cause plenty of accidents.

  Mikawa blew lightly into his hands and peered at the Syndicate’s Aoyama safe house through the resulting white steam. Then he posed a question to the person at his side. “…So, is there really a black spy pickling in concrete in there?”

  “Well, my timed trap certainly was activated. Whether it caught a Jet Eye or a mouse or what, your guess is as good as mine.”

  “You don’t want to dig it out to check?”

  “Of course not! I’m not rescuing someone from my own trap,” she huffed. Mikawa looked at her and shrugged slightly.

  The two of them were encamped on the roof of an abandoned factory just southwest of the five-story building that served as the safe house. Of course, this meant they had no walls or ceiling to protect them from the biting cold, which Mikawa’s flimsy jacket did little to abate. And yet next to him, Liquidizer, who was even more lightly dressed than he was, gave no indication that she was bothered by the cold. Stranger still, instead of her usual brand-name business suit, she was wearing a high school girl’s sailor uniform.

  He cleared his throat to prepare himself. “…So, I’m not sure I can hold this question in much longer. Is that a disguise? Or is it your true identity?”

  Liquidizer responded with the same mysterious smile as always. “Which answer would you prefer?”