kscans

Chapter 195 - Respective Agendas

Side: None

Time rewinds just a little.

"Well, this has turned into quite a mess…"

China, near the Great Wall.

In a forest nearby, three girls were camping.

"Who would’ve thought we’d get ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2! Oh my, is this the Yellow Turban Rebellion?’… Even the eyes of Japan’s number one prodigy couldn’t foresee this. Well played, modern-day Zhang Jiao. Also known as party-boy Zhang Jiao."

"Who are you calling a prodigy, you number one idiot! You’re the one who said, ‘Let’s go on a trip before summer break ends. I want to eat some authentic xiaolongbao’!"

"There’s no use dwelling on the past. The hands of time are always moving forward…"

The elven-eared girl setting up the tent roared with a hammer in hand, her face a mask of fury.

But the gray-haired girl she was yelling at showed no remorse, calmly admonishing her.

"Th-This girl who had to repeat a year, just how thick is her skin…!"

"Come on, now. We all agreed to the trip, and the destination being China was the result of a dart throw. No point in getting angry."

"Ugh… you’re right. My apologies."

"As long as you understand. As long as you understand."

"That said, she’s still infuriating…!"

After smiling wryly at the growling, elven-eared girl, the girl with the twin pigtails pulled a portable stove, a plastic bottle of water, and a silver pot from her large backpack.

"Let’s have some coffee and calm down. By the time we finish, we’ll have a plan for what to do next."

"…Hah. You’re right. Getting irritated at her is pointless."

"…Well, I do feel bad. Sort of."

The girl with the twin pigtails chuckled at her two pouting companions.

The silver pot she held was a moka pot, a tall, direct-fire espresso maker.

She must have been used to it. The girl skillfully disassembled the pot, poured water into the bottom chamber, filled the central funnel with coffee grounds, and placed it on the flame.

While the coffee brewed, the two who had been at odds worked together in silent, perfect sync to set up camp.

By the time the twin-tailed girl was pouring the coffee into cups, they had finished their work and were wiping their hands on wet towels.

"Here you go. Sugar and milk as you like."

"Yes, thank you… Heh."

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing."

With a triumphant smirk at the gray-haired girl using three packets of sugar, the elven-eared girl began to sip her black coffee.

"Just so you know, adding sugar to coffee is the authentic way. You should only leave tea plain when it’s green tea…!"

"Well, my coffee is quite different from the authentic stuff anyway. I’m pretty casual about it."

With a carefree expression, the twin-tailed girl began to slowly drink her own coffee.

She also took out a can of chocolate cookies, and the three of them began to talk as they snacked.

"So… what should we do now?"

"First, let’s recap what’s happened so far. I want to organize the situation."

The elven-eared girl straightened her posture, her expression tightening.

Her ample chest was slightly emphasized, causing the gray-haired girl next to her to make a sour face, but they all decided it must have been because she didn't have enough sugar.

"Due to various circumstances, our school’s summer vacation was ‘pushed back,’ and we’re technically still on break. The next semester starts in a week."

"So the three of us came on a trip before summer break ended. The destination was decided by darts."

"Uh-huh. The xiaolongbao were delicious!"

The twin-tailed girl smiled like a child, as if recalling the taste.

"Then, out of nowhere, a rebellion breaks out in China. Our hotel was attacked, so we dealt with it casually and left the scene."

"We couldn’t exactly kill them, so we prioritized escaping and ended up here."

"And since we were here anyway, I wanted to see the Great Wall!"

"And that brings us to now… If we think about this seriously, the correct course of action seems to be waiting for Japan to move to rescue its citizens."

"But I wonder if the Japanese embassy is safe. Those guys were barely organized."

"Well, that’s how rebellions usually are."

Amidst the aroma of coffee, the three girls’ conversation gradually turned bloody.

"Should we just go and beat up all the rebel army guys around the airport?"

"There are too many of them, I’m afraid we might accidentally kill someone…"

"Besides, there might be people stronger than us mixed in. You know, like those people claiming to be remnants of Turohorse."

"…I wonder if they’re really that strong."

The gray-haired girl raised an eyebrow, a question mark floating over her head.

"Huh? But some of them claimed to be former executives, so aren't they strong?"

"In that last battle, we were lucky that the collapse of the castle incapacitated most of the enemy executives… Fighting them head-on would be a tough battle."

"About that, all of them had their faces covered with masks, right? I bet they’re fakes."

"…For you to say that, do you have any proof?"

"I do. My intuition."

The gray-haired girl puffed out her flat chest confidently. For a moment, the other two stared blankly.

"Okay. Then I believe you!"

"When it comes to who’s strong and who’s weak, this one’s intuition has never been wrong…"

They nodded without hesitation and sipped their coffee.

"In that case, why don’t we make it easier for the rescue teams from various countries to move?"

"What do you mean?"

"Every country must be scared, you know. Of a ‘group of combat-capable Awakened Persons’ that conventional tactics don’t work on."

The twin-tailed girl continued as if discussing the dinner menu.

"So, if we eliminate them, the rescue operations can proceed, and we can get home before summer vacation ends, right?"

"…I see."

The elven-eared girl finished the last sip of her coffee.

"An excellent idea."

"I’m in."

The gray-haired girl also finished her coffee, and the twin-tailed girl tilted her own cup, pouring the last of it down her throat.

"It’s decided, then."

And so, the decision was made to throw a stone the size of a pickling weight into the pond of future social affairs.

*

And now, the hands of the clock return to their original position.

"What is the meaning of this, Akasaka-kun…"

"You better explain yourself, Akasaka…"

Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. A certain conference room in the Ministry of Defense.

Once again, the usual members had gathered, with one old man being flanked and glared at by two other old men.

Specifically, a department director from the Agency was being sandwiched by two generals from the Self-Defense Force.

"Well… I’m not aware of the detailed situation myself."

"Aren’t those three supposed to be your dogs?"

"Did you even have 'em on a leash, huh?"

"…They are not beings that can be leashed."

"What’s that? Are you talking back to me?"

"In a way, they are representatives of the ‘B-Rank Adventurers’."

"Well, then it can’t be helped. Sorry for glaring. It’s not your fault."

"You have it rough, Akasaka-kun…!"

In a complete turnaround from their earlier ferocity, General Marui of the GSDF and Admiral Kadokura of the MSDF patted Director Akasaka’s shoulder in a consoling, almost sympathetic manner.

The Director accepted it with a grim expression.

"At that rank, the only ones who are obedient… who don’t misinterpret orders, come up with strange independent interpretations, or do things ‘for the best’… are the Invisible Ninjas…!"

"If only they weren’t pawns of the ‘Professor’."

"On the contrary, it might be precisely because of the ‘Professor’ that their leash is held so well."

The three men nodded deeply, sat down in their respective chairs, and switched their train of thought.

"So, what’s the plan? The MSDF is strengthening its alert in the Sea of Japan and cooperating with the GSDF to be ready to rescue our nationals at any time."

"…But the Diet is still dragging its feet, as usual. Considering the international situation, it’s understandable."

"As things stand, our best bet might be to have other countries rescue the Japanese citizens when they go in. We’d have to repay them with money and supplies, of course."

"They’ll probably cut that from the budget for the otherworld dispatch, huh."

"That’s a problem, but if we have to rely on other countries for the rescue now…"

"Yes. There’s a possibility that some countries will try to target those three on this occasion."

A cold sweat trickled down their cheeks.

"It’ll become an international incident…"

"There’s no way they’d let themselves be captured without a fight."

"They have the kind of mentality to calmly punch their way through even if innocent civilians are taken hostage…"

An incident where the three girls thwarted a bomb plot by an ‘Anti-Awakened group’ came to Director Akasaka’s mind.

At that time, the culprit had desperately taken a nearby elementary school girl hostage.

"Grandma always said not to negotiate with terrorists!"

"How despicable…! Young lady, we will visit your grave every year…!"

"We just have to beat him up before the hostage dies, right?"

…In the end, there were zero casualties. The incident was never reported on TV, and it ended peacefully… relatively, ‘peacefully’.

Gently, Director Akasaka pressed his forehead.

"They will undoubtedly cause some kind of trouble…!"

"Probably."

"It seems we have no choice but to send the Self-Defense Force to rescue them…!"

No one was worried about the three girls themselves. After all, they had captured the main force of the local armed groups alive, took photos of all of them, and uploaded them to the internet. It was only natural.

Unbeknownst to the three old men, the three girls in question were currently being celebrated at a festival in a village they had saved from marauders.

The fact that they were properly refusing alcohol showed their mysterious respect for the law.

"…Well, deciding on that front is the job of politicians and bureaucrats. We’ll just make sure we’re ready to move as soon as the call comes."

"We’re counting on you."

"Then, what about the troop dispatch to the other world? The work to clear the collapsed sections is ongoing, but should we halt that and reassign personnel?"

"That might be for the best. We need to maintain our alert at sea, just in case."

"…The alert is crucial, of course, but I would like you to continue the debris removal work somehow. The Dungeon Agency will also do its part by commissioning adventurers to reduce the burden on the GSDF."

"Huh?"

Admiral Kadokura tilted his head at Director Akasaka’s words.

He stroked his bearded chin and stared at the Director.

"What’s this about? Don’t tell me you haven't given up on dispatching to the other world yet."

"Of course not."

Director Akasaka nodded firmly, meeting the gazes of the general and admiral.

"The ‘research materials of Doctor Tesla’ obtained by the Invisible Ninjas. If we use them… if it goes well, we can stop the increase of dungeons."

Even now, the number of dungeons was on the rise. Solving this was an urgent task, but there was no known method.

Or rather, there had been no known method.

Doctor Tesla. He was an insane mad scientist, but his passion was genuine.

His final research materials held a key to solving this situation.

*

His original ‘Tesla Project’ was to ‘achieve teleportation.’

It seemed like a preposterous fantasy, but it had once been partially successful.

1943, the ‘Philadelphia Experiment.’

Now spoken of as an urban legend, it had in fact taken place.

The project, which aimed to make a ship undetectable to radar by enveloping its hull in a special magnetic field, produced the unexpected result of teleportation.

It was an outcome unforeseen even by the original planners, but what had happened could not be undone. The destroyer used in the experiment suddenly vanished from its spot, only to reappear when the device was shut down.

An experiment to grant stealth capabilities to a warship had produced an even greater military result.

But the cost was also great. About ninety percent of the crew on the returned destroyer were dead. The remaining ten percent were in a horrific state, with their bodies fused to the ship’s hull.

Due to the numerous casualties, the US Navy at the time decided to halt the experiment. As the research had been concealed even from the President, all materials related to the experiment were buried in darkness.

And amidst the chaos of the escalating World War and the US-Soviet Cold War, those materials became, not just figuratively, but literally ‘unknown to anyone.’

That is, until an old man styling himself as the ‘successor to Nikola Tesla’ brought it all back to light.

He brought the plan to the US military, received the President's approval, and secretly carried it out in Japan.

Japan was chosen simply for environmental reasons.

Conducting it in his own country was too risky, yet places like the Middle East made it difficult to secure the necessary power and supplies.

And so, Japan, an advanced nation with multiple US military bases, was chosen.

But the experiment once again produced an unexpected result.

‘A gate to another world appeared.’ It was far beyond mere teleportation. In response, the President, far from being disappointed by the experiment’s failure, cheered.

There was a new frontier that no one from Earth had yet set foot on. That fact sealed the decision to continue the experiment.

And so, while Japan was thrown into chaos, Doctor Tesla formed a hypothesis.

He considered the possibility that Japan was being mistaken for the place the white gate was originally connected to—the nation now known as the ‘Atlantis Empire.’

The leylines within the dungeons and Japan’s leylines were remarkably similar. This wasn’t an effect of the gate connection, he thought, but the reason Japan was chosen as the connection point in the first place.

In the planned Middle East experiment, he intended to alter the local leylines using the power of someone with a ‘Holy Grail’ unique skill, change them to a state similar to Japan’s, and attempt to create a gate once more.

However, the Middle East experiment was canceled for various reasons. In Japan, he partially and temporarily altered the flow of the leylines and used the special Tesla coil again.

And, as if to prove his hypothesis, no gate appeared; the laboratory merely vanished while the device was active.

However, the device for altering the leylines malfunctioned, and the conditions were accidentally met for the ‘Giant’s Dungeon’ to connect. This is how the ‘Tokyo Incident’ occurred.

As a result, the research facility was destroyed, and most of the staff were killed, making it impossible to continue the experiment.

But Doctor Tesla had already thought ‘beyond that’ and had written down his future experiment plans in his research notes.

From the very beginning, he had never doubted his hypothesis. Even before investigating, he believed it to be ‘fact.’

Was it the arrogant tunnel vision that would disqualify a scientist, or some kind of divine revelation? It is impossible to know now.

But it was precisely because of this that he had also advanced his research on a ‘method to make gates appear freely, anywhere.’

The Earth’s leylines are robust and difficult to manipulate.

However, the leylines on the other world side… where Atlantis once was, had lost their original form, as evidenced by the gate connecting to Japan.

It is difficult to tamper with a finished product. But it is easy to tamper with something that is already broken.

*

"We will change the leylines of the former Atlantis Empire to match Japan’s, even for just a moment. If we do that, while the currently existing gates will remain, any new gates trying to connect should be diverted there instead."

The Doctor had planned to temporarily restore the leylines of old Atlantis to their original state, setting it as the gate’s destination. From there, he intended to alter the leylines again to make gates appear in any desired location.

Akasaka’s idea was to use that plan.

"…About what you just said, do you have a lead on this ‘Holy Grail’?"

"Yes."

Director Akasaka touched the smartphone in his breast pocket.

"My daughter has connected us to a move that will shape the future."

A giant beast resembling a sea slug that controlled lightning roared in a distant, foreign land.

Looking up at its form, a certain man stood silently.

*

Washington D.C., United States. The Oval Office of the White House.

"The thoughts of a madman are impossible to read. Or perhaps, he should be considered a genius possessed by madness."

Displayed on the monitor on the desk were photos of the men who had claimed to be the ‘former Turohorse’ group, ‘Istio.’

Arianrhod had cross-referenced those publicly released photos with their remaining member roster. Finding neither the faces nor names of the men on the list, they immediately issued a full denial of any connection to Turohorse.

In reality, ‘Istio’ was not ‘Turohorse.’ They weren’t even Japanese. They were just Chinese workers in Japan who had become Awakened. After Awakening, they had been ‘coerced’ into cooperating with the Chinese government on various matters.

"It’s only a matter of time before their identities are made public. Director, are the files in order?"

"Of course, Mr. President. They are mere terrorists with no connection whatsoever to the United States. They themselves don’t know who their sponsors are, and they believe their ideology is one they came to on their own."

"Excellent. A splendid job."

Only the President and the CIA Director were in the Oval Office.

Though his stomach churned, the Director showed no sign of it on the surface, maintaining a perfectly still, upright posture.

"However, Akasaka remains a dangerous man. To think he had a trump card Awakened unit sent in beforehand. We are currently investigating how the information was leaked."

"Indeed. There’s no telling where his demonic hands have reached. His skill in abducting the ‘Wedge’ makes me think he could only have done it by sending in Awakened. Perhaps the same method was used this time."

"With all due respect, that matter has already been dealt with. The same trick will not work on us again. If his hand was involved, it was likely through some other means."

"I see… The monster. A man who doesn't abide by human reason is unpredictable."

President Fudge Valentine muttered this with disgust, then gave a small laugh.

"But it seems he was getting impatient as well."

"Yes. It would appear so."

"Those three you mentioned, they are still within China, correct?"

"Yes. According to satellite imagery, they seem to be staying in a village that was attacked by the rebel army."

"What about the Walkers and the Alchemy Enthusiasts Club?"

"With the reconstruction from the Tokyo Incident complete, they have returned to their respective hometowns. Very few remain in Tokyo. They are swamped with their usual backlog of work."

"And the Invisible Ninjas?"

"The ‘Professor’ is currently flying all over Japan and is away from Tokyo. The members thought to be their operational unit also show no signs of traveling far from their hometown. They are attending school."

"The JSDF’s… ‘Dragon Killer Squad,’ was it? What about them?"

"Leaving one member in Chiba Prefecture, they are moving to deal with other dungeons. We have information that they are conducting culling operations in Aomori, Kyoto, and Kumamoto, respectively. The other JSDF units are also split between culling operations, responding to the rebellion in China, and clearing debris within the dungeons."

"If that is the case…"

The President, with a tap, struck the desk with his rugged fingertip.

"Then right now… there is no one left to protect him."

A smile spread across his lips.

His mouth curved upward like the blade of a grim reaper’s scythe.

*

Tokyo, an undisclosed location.

Two men dressed in black walked through a space that was, on paper, a company's underground storage facility.

They opened a heavily guarded door using a pair of keys they produced from their pockets, turning them simultaneously in their respective locks.

"It was fortunate this place survived the Tokyo Incident."

"Indeed. It is a secret laboratory known only to us, not even told to the other members."

The two leaders of the Alchemy Enthusiasts Club had come to this place without any guards. When the vice-chairman pressed a small switch, a cluttered space was illuminated.

There was a giant capsule, connected to numerous instruments. Inside, a huge body was curled up like a fetus in a culture medium.

It was too bizarre to be called human.

It was about three meters tall. Its skeleton was a mix of beast and man, but it had no fur, not even skin. Only a slimy mucus clung to its body’s surface.

The two men gazed intently at the monster from beneath their hoods.

"This is something that should be abhorred, I suppose."

"But such is human nature. Even if its existence is unacceptable, one grows fond of what one has created with their own hands."

An error they had committed, unknown and unknowable to the other club members.

It was…

"In a drunken stupor, we just had to say, ‘Let’s make a golem that combines both our fetishes!’ and ended up throwing in all sorts of materials, didn’t we?"

"Indeed. Getting drunk on homemade moonshine and then building something like this in the basement… we can never tell anyone about this!"

An Awakened Person cannot get drunk on ordinary liquor. However, ‘magical liquor’ created through alchemy or potion-making is a different story.

What stood before them was the result of an old man and a geezer’s big mistake.

"But what should we do with this?"

"Hmm. We did make it stronger than your average Awakened Person…"

"Shall we drag Yamashita-kun into this?"

"But he is rather strict about these things."

Crack.

The two men, chatting idly, had not yet noticed the sound of glass cracking.