6

“Ice cream, eh? Weird little hobby you’ve got there.” Spooky E just had to laugh at the mission handed down to him from above.

His body was a curious shape. His swollen torso bulged out so much that it was almost round, but his limbs were long and thin like sticks. Normally, this synthetic human’s task was, in some respects, like Tosuke’s; though, Tosuke was unaware what he was doing. Put bluntly, he was mixing drugs into regular people’s food without their knowledge. Comparatively, the idea of that “change” occurring just because someone did or didn’t like ice cream was hard to believe.

Not that he needed to believe, of course. He was given this mission in order to test his loyalty. Whether the endeavour had any meaning or not was irrelevant.

“Yeah, yeah. Think I’m gonna take this one slow. Reckon I can make her into a terminal?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea. We’ve had no official orders from Axis, but they may want her as a sample. You can interact with the target, but you’d best refrain from using your powers,” said Squeeze.

Spooky E nodded with a “gotcha”.

The rotund man had the unique ability to release electrical waves from his hands, which allowed him to manipulate the minds of people and “brainwash” them. By doing so, he could turn a great many people into “terminals” who would do his bidding.

“Still…you’ve landed yourself a fine job here, eh, Squeeze? An eradication-type and a combat-type together? That’s one hell of a good luck charm.”

Spooky E opened his eyes wide, chuckling to himself with a vulgar “hee hee hee”.

“A job’s a job,” stated Squeeze indifferently.

Spooky E just shrugged his shoulders with a sneer.

“Anyhow, I think even I’m gonna try to be careful this time. Don’t wanna get myself wrapped up in anything you guys are doing.”

Spooky E skimmed through the documents and then crumpled them into a ball. The paper then began to burn, lit by the shockwaves released from the palm of his hand, until it was gone without a trace. With a puff of air, the dust in his hand blew away, leaving nothing remaining. His hand was, of course, entirely unburnt.

“Furukita Sonoko, you said?” Spooky E’s whole face broke into a twisted grin.

“Tosuke-san, allow me to introduce you to Marco-san. I’ve brought him along because I think he will prove useful to your job.”

Furukita Sonoko, who’d come along for monitor testing like usual, had brought Spooky E along with her.

“Marco…san?” Tosuke’s eyes widened upon seeing Spooky E’s strange appearance.

“T-thank you. I’m Kigawa Tosuke. So, um…”

With a worried expression, he looked to Sonoko, who nodded and smiled back.

“Marco-san says he works in the trading business, so he’s very experienced with all kinds of flavors. I met him at the TV station the other day and just happened have some ice cream on me, so I let him have a taste…”

“I sprinkled my chips on it, a secret recipe. And do you know what happened? Sonoko’s ice cream became three times tastier than before!”

“Three times?” Tosuke was taken aback by the precision of the number, but he’d taken an interest in the secret flavor. “What are these chips you’re talking about?”

“‘Spunky’, huh…” Tosuke took the bottle, noisily poured the granules into his hand, and gave them a sniff. “I see. It’s got quite an unusual smell.”

“It has a relaxing effect on people.”

Long story short, it was like a downer drug. But, being specially manufactured, it was undetectable upon examination. It was originally used to measure the extent of “change” in a person. Spooky E had been creating “terminals” to spread this drug across the city.

Tosuke tried tasting it with the tip of his tongue, and sounded impressed.

“It’s got a minty flavor, huh. Kind of like peppermint.”

“That is your area of specialty for ice cream, no?” laughed Spooky E, making his already-large eyes bulge even more.

He appeared friendly, but his laugh hinted at untold depths.

“Yeah, I think it could be worth trying this out,” he said, his face lighting up the way it did whenever he had a good idea for ice cream.

“I’d love to be able to try out something that it could be used in too,” Sonoko added, smiling. She was, of course, completely unaware.

“I know! Marco-san, how would you like to try out my ice cream along with Sonoko today?”

“Are you sure?”

Whoa now, you want me to eat the stuff that’s part of the experiment?

On the inside, Spooky E was worried, but kept up a cheery facade.

A table was prepared for them, and they found themselves seated in front of the ice cream which Tosuke had so kindly arranged for them. Sonoko, as always, dug in without a second thought, but Spooky E had slight misgivings.

“This is...a little nerve-wracking for me...”

“No need to be nervous. Nothing here is going on sale; it’s all going to be thrown away afterwards anyway.”

“Did you go over budget again?” asked Sonoko, laughing. Tosuke responded with a mischievous smile of his own.

Spooky E sighed and hesitantly brought the ice cream to his lips.

And then…he expressed a reaction like all the other humans who had tried it before him: he was struck speechless, flapping his lips like a goldfish, and before he knew it, had carried another mouthful to his lips.

“Hahaha! What do you think? It’s a little different from what they sell in the shop, right?”

Spooky E remained silent, but he understood deep down.

So that’s it… I could just about designate this as a target… Except…

He found that there was something holding him back. Even though he’d been pinning his hopes on it, and even though he’s pinpointed it, there was really almost nothing that the Towa Organization would recognize as being potent. And once a decision was made, it couldn’t be overruled. If it came to that, the probational period would be over and “disposal” would commence.

I wonder which way this guy’s gonna end up?

“Delicious, right? But this is a monitor test, so you’re free to voice your opinions. Right, Tosuke-san?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

The two of them stared at Spooky E expectantly.

“Let me think...” In all honesty, Spooky E thought the ice cream was good, but he’d have preferred it to be sweeter. His tongue enjoyed junk food.

“I feel it may be too refined for my taste.”

“Hmm, I see. I guess it’s because you prefer chocolate by nature.”

Being told that, Spooky E was somehow startled.

“By nature? What’s that s’posed to mean?” he answered back, forgetting his cover accent.

“Hmm, how do I put this…”

“This guy can take one look at a person’s face and predict their preference,” Sonoko answered in his place.

“Predict their…preference?”

For some reason, it sounded incredibly disturbing. It felt as if Tosuke had peered into his mind and delivered some kind of fatal blow. Maybe it was similar to his brainwashing power, in a way. And, though he could manipulate people’s minds, he had no way of knowing what they were really thinking.

You’re telling me this guy knows?

“Predict? I can’t predict. It’s just… Ah, forget it. It’s just a hunch I have.”

Tosuke didn’t go on about the “pain” stuff, because he felt that was the reason why Rei had left. He’d decided never to tell anyone about that again.

“………”

Spooky E was confused. He didn’t feel the slightest hint of animosity towards this man, even though he normally always felt it when confronting pretty boys like him. He, with his overblown belly, grotesquely plump and disproportionate, and this guy, slim, tall, and handsome… It was strange, but he felt like they were deformed in a similar kind of way.

* * * * *

And so, this ‘Spunky’ substance, which had been passed from Spooky E to Tosuke at a low cost despite it being no less expensive than its competition, eventually mixed in with Tosuke’s ice cream in the manufacturing plant and was distributed all across the chain. At the same time, Spooky E’s terminals were observing how people’s behaviors would change upon tasting it. Heh. It’d been a ton of work, but Spooky E had gotten the job done.

It was a great success, and it was around this time that Tosuke’s classic mint ice cream turned into a hit product. Up until that point, it hadn’t been selling poorly per se, but the sales figures for other flavors like chocolate, strawberry or vanilla had been better by a wide margin.

And there was a simple reason for this. Basically, the ones who’d tried it began to exhibit signs of addiction. Hihihi. It didn’t have shit to do with Tosuke’s ability. Fact is, the world’s not that kind. Just think, the flavor he’d perfected after years of labor and diligent study lost so easily to drugs…

And who else bore the full brunt of the effect but the one who’d also been the object of the surveillance: Furukita Sonoko.

* * * * *

“Hold on now, Sonoko. Haven’t you been losing a little too much weight lately?” asked the manager while Sonoko was taking a break in the TV station’s dressing room.

“Huh?” she replied, looking up from her script. “You think so?”

“Think so?! How much do you weigh right now? I really hope you’re not on some kind of diet.”

“No, not particularly.”

“Are you eating properly? This job’s hard enough as it is. Come on, have this bento. The ones here are supposed to be tasty,” said the woman, trying to hand over a bento and chopsticks to Sonoko.

“I’m fine right now. We’ll be live soon anyway.”

“Which is why I’m saying you’ve gotta get some food in you.”

She insisted strongly. She really seemed to be worried about Sonoko, whose cheekbones were on the verge of standing out. Sonoko smiled, took the bento and slowly started eating.

Before long, the AD came and told them they’d soon be on air.

“Yes, sir!”

Sonoko put the chopsticks down. The manager wanted to say something, but Sonoko had gotten up before that.

“I’m just gonna go to the bathroom,” she said as she left.

The manager exhaled an audible sigh behind her, but she’d already broken into a half-run, and as soon as she’d entered the nearby stall, she bent over and tried to cling to the toilet bowl, retching, as she expelled everything she’d ingested earlier.

She hadn’t been able to eat anything but Tosuke’s ice cream lately. It was flavorless, and after she’d swallowed it, it felt like it was just lying there in her stomach, unable to be digested. She’d had similar symptoms, like the time she’d eaten the bad ice cream, but now that had extended beyond ice cream. To Sonoko, all food was becoming a foreign substance.

“Haa, haa, haa…”

Nevertheless, the reason for her popularity, her keen intuition that allowed her to perceive others’ feelings when communicating, shone ever brighter, and almost everyone in the industry was growing to like her.

“Haa, haa… Get a grip… Gotta get a grip… Everyone’s waiting for me…”

She was behaving as if betraying their expectations would mean losing her reason for living. Fingers trembling, Sonoko flushed the toilet. At which point the manager showed up.

“Sonoko, are you all right?” she asked worriedly from outside the door. But Sonoko continued muttering for a while, unable to answer.

“Get a grip, gotta get a grip…”

“…It shouldn’t be long at this rate.”

Sonoko was at the studio, standing in front of the camera, smiling at everyone. Behind her, her manager was contacting someone by cell phone.

“What sort of tendency is she showing? Is it because of the drug?”

On the other side of the line, Spooky E’s voice could be heard.

“Most likely. It looks like she’s becoming unable to intake other foods. At the current rate, I’d say she’ll be dead in a month from malnutrition.”

The manager’s tone of voice was cold, as if she were a machine.

“Is it her body that’s in a bad state? Or are we talking mentally?”

Spooky E’s voice was equally unfeeling. It sounded as if they couldn’t care less whether Sonoko lived or died.

“I can’t say for sure, but I haven’t come across anything particularly indicative of physical change. Mentally, she has a noticeable tendency not to let others down, to an excessive degree. She did, however, behave like this to begin with, so there have been those who call her “slow”, “dull” and the like.

“…I see. Even before she ate the ice cream, huh?”

This phenomenon of becoming unable to eat other food wasn’t just something that exhibited itself in Sonoko. A large number of high school girls, working women and the like also exhibited similar symptoms around this time. But because they themselves happily replied that they’d been dieting too much and told others not to worry, the general public didn’t notice that the ice cream was the cause. They just attributed it to malnutrition instead. Well, no one noticed it at this stage anyway…

“A thank-you event?” Tosuke said unenthusiastically, scanning over the business proposal that Kageyama had shown him.

“That’s right. Considering our competitors are starting to catch up to us, this could be our way to get people talking around here,” said Kageyama confidently.

“But what would we do, exactly? If we’re renting out a whole hall…”

The venue stated in the proposal was an event hall with a considerably large capacity of 20,000.

“We can start with a taste-testing festival. We’ll offer samples to guests at no cost. We could also have other things, like presents of products with mascot characters on them, and giveaways decided by raffle. Oh, and I was thinking we could have Furukita-san present a talk show for us.”

“Sonoko? I don’t know if she’d come…”

“She’ll come. She’s been helping us as a monitor tester after all. I’ve even asked formally at her office. We got a hold of her schedule too.”

“You’ve been really thorough, huh… Fine. It’s pretty much decided then, isn’t it? Why did you even bother asking me?”

“Because I’d like you to attend too.”

“Eh?” Tosuke’s face stiffened in response to Kageyama’s words. “M-me?"

“You’re popular, boss. If you make some speech in your usual clown getup, they’re going to love it.”

“G-give me a break!  You want me to go out there in front of all those people?” Tosuke waved his hands broadly.

“You’re really saying that now? You’ve been showing up in the media all the time, haven’t you?”

“That’s… I mean, I didn’t have to meet so many people then…”

“Tens of thousands of people were watching, you know.”

“No, that’s not that I mean… You want me to stand up there in front of a huge number of people all at once, right?”

If he were to feel the pain of so many all in one go, then…

“It doesn’t even matter if you flub your lines. In fact, on the contrary, that could generate intimacy.”

Kageyama had no consideration for Tosuke’s unease. Though Tosuke tried to protest, he just laughed.

“Come now, there’s no need to overthink things. It would be enough even just serving the ice cream. Isn’t that what you’re always going out to do at the chain stores?” he said casually.

“Hmm…”

Tosuke didn’t tell him that he did that only because sometimes he couldn’t keep making ice cream without directly seeing the faces of those who were eating it. Even Tosuke could tell there wasn’t any hope of him understanding.

“Anyway, our products have some very hardcore fans. We have to give those people a little reward for always enjoying our ice cream. That’s what this event is about.”

“…Hmm.”

Doing it for the people who were enjoying his ice cream. Tosuke was weak to those kinds of words, because it was all that he had left.

Ten minutes later, Tosuke ended up signing the proposal.

* * * * *

From: CAP1755963W

To: OPF699

Application for Case M

In regard to the ongoing surveillance situation, we will proceed with disposal in accordance with your decision, prior to beginning stage 002.

Aiming to carry out with extreme prejudice the elimination of individual ‘Furukita Sonoko,’ observed to have greatest influence out of all targets. Notorious I.C.E. deemed not as high in priority, but still a target of disposal, in accordance with XE23. Over.

* * * * *

From: OPF699

To: CAP1755963W

Verdict regarding application for Case M

Permission for application granted. Over.

* * * * *

…It was the beginning of the end. Kigawa Tosuke’s glory had begun to tumble towards its final moments.

[1] As I’m sure you could already guess, Squeeze is another music reference. It comes from the name of Velvet Underground’s final studio album. Apparently, the album was very poorly received, and the writer for pretty much all the songs, Doug Yule, described it as “the blind leading the blind.” Don’t know if that’ll be relevant or not.

[2] This may not be intentional, but, knowing Kadono and his admiration for JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, it probably is. Marco D’Ambrosio is the name of the composer on the original JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure OVA series from 1993. Because of course it is.

[3] In the original Japanese, everything he said in his accent was in Katakana, so it’s kinda hard to read. Unfortunately, I can’t really re-create that well on the website. The translation reads a bit better in the downloadable version, where I used a different font.

[4] Besides the obvious adult implications that it has to Europeans, Spunky could refer to a character from Rocko’s Modern Life. Though, I have my doubts as to if Kadono would watch and like something like that enough to put a reference to it in his novel. It’s probably just related to the word ‘Spunky’s actual definition.

[5] Notorious I.C.E. is a portmanteau of two rappers. The first being the Notorious B.I.G., also known as Biggie Smalls. The second could either be Vanilla Ice or Ice Cube, though, given this novel’s focus on ice cream, my money’s on Vanilla Ice.