"Congratulations on your promotion, General Yagami."
Duncan Sebring was not the kind of man whose appearance and bearing immediately screamed "Field Marshal" at those who saw him. He was below-average in height and slightly built, his gray hair was thin and wispy and his face scored by a thousand wrinkles. Appearances, Yagami Hayate knew, were very much deceiving. As a contemporary of the "Three Great Admirals," Marshal Sebring had been directly responsible for the Ground Forces receiving equal status in the military structure (if not in prestige or budgeting) of the then newly-formed Time-Space Administration Bureau to the Navy. His mind was lethally incisive and his political skill remarkable, though he preferred to keep his direct involvement on a one-on-one basis and conduct public work through front men with superior personal charisma.
"Thank you, sir," Hayate replied.
"It's a remarkable achievement for one so young. Only twenty-nine years old, and already reaching three-star rank. You're our youngest Lieutenant General in Ground Forces history. Though," the old man added with a smile that made dozens of the lines on his face dance like a kaleidoscope pattern, "I suppose you're used to it by now." He tapped a key on his desktop and a holoscreen phased in at right angles to both of them, displaying what was clearly Hayate's dossier. "Youngest task force commander, youngest colonel, youngest brigadier, youngest major-general..."
Hayate's childhood training was to deflect the compliment with a polite demurral. Mid-Childan culture, though, was not Japanese. Moreover, she had a good idea that Sebring was leading up to something; he hadn't requested this meeting merely for social purposes. After all, she too was familiar with deceiving appearances. Her petite build, pixie-cute face and short brown hair made her look even younger than her age; she could have passed for a university student with little trouble.
"I'm aware of the honor."
"I was sure you would be."
He gestured at the screen.
"As a matter of fact, I've been following the details of your career. Your youth is not the only remarkable thing about you. Mages of any power level are the exception among Ground Forces general officers, and you are the only one native to a non-administered world. Of course, those go hand-in-hand; if you weren't a mage you'd certainly be living out an ordinary life on that world, never having any contact with Mid-Childa or the TSAB."
Hayate smiled at that.
"Well, hopefully not too ordinary, sir. That would be boring."
"Quite," he replied, smiling back, then turned to face the screen. "Let's see, now. You were the ward of Admiral Gil Graham, who himself is a native of Non-Administered Planet 97...'Earth,' I believe you call it?"
Hayate was sure that his checking the data was a pretense. If her background was at all relevant Sebring surely knew it by heart.
"Partially through his connivance," he continued, "you were involved both as a perpetrator and as a victim of the so-called 'Book of Darkness' incident, at the age of nine. In successfully suppressing this dangerous Lost Logia, you were left as a mage of extraordinary potential, and in addition with the sworn service of a unit of independent programs, four Ancient Belkan knights that had been absorbed by the Book as its guardians, collectively referred to as the Wolkenritter. Although they hold positions within the TSAB, their unquestioned loyalty is to you personally rather than the chain of command."
"Marshal, I can't think of any occasion when any of the Wolkenritter have chosen my agenda over—"
Sebring held up his hand.
"Peace, General. I don't mean to criticize either them or you. I'm merely stating the facts. In truth, the only reason they joined the TSAB at all was for your sake, so they could continue to legally operate as your guardian knights. Similarly, your own service with us began following your—and their—trial for that incident. Having caused us considerable trouble but being of fundamentally innocent character, it was decided that you would serve to assist the TSAB with your skills, a kind of community service if you will. You were given a choice of assignments and opted for the Ground Forces, where you were assigned to the Special Investigations Branch."
"With my magical abilities and that of the Wolkenritter, it was believed we'd do the most good in that capacity."
"As it proved. After a year's probationary period, you were admitted to OCS and were commissioned as an officer and therefore a full SIB investigator at the age of eleven. Your work was extraordinary, leading to rapid promotions. At age sixteen, however, you shifted priorities and entered the unit command path. At nineteen you were placed in command of Lost Property Riot Force 6, a cross-service task force assigned to address the Lost Logia known as Relics. You successfully closed the incident within a matter of months despite the fact that it connected directly to corruption within the TSAB Council and your own Ground Forces superiors as well as the machinations of wide-area dimensional criminal Jail Scaglietti. After RF6 was dispersed, its mission completed, you were promoted to Colonel and have since held a number of command and administrative positions, in which your performance had been exemplary. I note a consistent pattern which RF6 exemplifies: perhaps because of your extensive contacts throughout the TSAB structure, you show a notable facility for building consensus between different groups but without sacrificing the army's prestige. That leads me to the one question I had for you."
Hayate had no idea what he was leading up to.
"General Yagami, why did you join the Ground Forces?"
She blinked in surprise.
"Excuse me?"
"You weren't specifically assigned to the Ground Forces. You could have as easily joined the Navy, either the main line or the Enforcement Bureau. Some would suggest that it would have been the most natural choice. You come from a non-administered world, so the Navy was the part of the TSAB that you'd interacted with. Your guardian was a Naval admiral, and your close friends and allies Lindy and Chrono Harlaown are ranking flag officers as well."
He drummed his fingers on the desk.
"What's more, high-potential mages almost invariably opt for the Navy or the Air Force. You're SSS now, I believe?"
Hayate shook her head.
"SS+. I never took the SSS test; I've barely spent any time in the field personally these past ten years, so while my magic may be up to the test my combat skills have atrophied since I was a teenager. Even then I mostly won fights through superior firepower than skill. That's one reason why I moved to a command position; now I can resolve situations through tactics other than overkill force."
Sebring chuckled.
"A valid point. I must say, I've long held the belief that our mage ranking system is flawed, as it grades out on a combination of magical power and the ability to effectively use that power in combat, which are two very different things. Though I suppose it gives a commander an instant thumbnail of a mage's combat capacity, which is useful. But don't let my personal hobby-horses distract us."
As if you were distracted for even a moment, Hayate thought with an inner laugh.
"Do you know how many S-ranked or above mages are in the Ground Forces?"
"No, sir."
"Four. Six if we include your Colonel Signum and Captain Vita, who technically hold Air Force billets but are, as we said, ultimately loyal to you. As noted, a very unusual career path for a mage of your potential."
"To be fair, there's not a lot of precedent for people who are leashed to renegade Lost Logia prior to the age of ten."
The Marshal smiled at her again.
"Indeed there isn't."
He reached for a black-enameled box decorated with gold filigree that sat on the edge of his desk. From it he took a thin, tightly-rolled cigar, almost a cigarillo.
"Do you mind, General?"
"It's your office, sir."
He picked up an ornamental lighter and snapped it on, holding the tip of the cigar in the flame, then set the lighter back down and inhaled. Not a whiff of smoke reached Hayate's nostrils; air-filtration systems must have been in effect. Probably the same mechanism that scrubs the air of poison gases and the like, she reflected, considering whose office this was and the probable level of magical security in place.
Smoking, the smile vanished from the Marshal's face. It was as if a mask had been stripped away and the man Hayate had known lurked behind the affable-grandfather routine stood revealed. He waved away the screen with Hayate's dossier.
"Do you want to know my theory, General Yagami?"
It was clearly not a question, and he did not wait for an answer.
"I think you selected the Ground Forces precisely because of our lack of elite mages."
He took another puff, then exhaled, the stream of smoke vanishing inches after leaving his lips.
"I'll be blunt: compared to the Navy's Enforcement Bureau, our SIB is a cross-dimensional joke. If they did a broadcast drama about it a running gag would be for the lead to announce, 'I'm with Ground Forces Special Investigation Branch' and the reply to be, 'Who?' If you had chosen to become an Enforcer, you would have been one more face among a number of more experienced, better-trained investigators. In the SIB, you were practically unique. With the addition of the Wolkenritter to you, you were guaranteed to receive high-profile, high-priority assignments simply because you had the capacity to deal with them. So long as you were successful, you were all but guaranteed to become an elite investigator. With you as its foremost investigator, the SIB meant something within the TSAB, and as a consequence your own prestige skyrocketed. You traded on that prestige. In short, you were the big fish in our small pond, and you're a three-star today because of it."
"Apparently I was a rather conniving nine-year-old."
"I suspect you were conniving at age two, General. I also suspect that Admiral Graham or Chrono Harlaown may have put a word in your ear at the time."
He gestured with his cigar.
"Ambition isn't a crime in a general officer, so long as it's backed by the ability to do the job. To succeed at flag rank demands political acuity as much as military or administrative skill, and the point of my little digression is to let you know that I believe you to possess it."
Hayate grinned impishly.
"Unless I'm about to tell you that I joined the Ground Forces because I liked the brown uniforms."
Sebring laughed, a deep belly-laugh that didn't suit his small frame.
"Which you're not."
"Of course not, sir. Even if it were true."
He chuckled again, then rose from his desk. As he did, he beckoned to Hayate, and she followed to stand beside him at the floor-to-ceiling window. The view of the city was panoramic, though Hayate's eye was caught by two seabirds wheeling and turning above one of the skyscrapers. Cranagan was a long way from the ocean; like herself they were displaced outsiders, having to make a new home for themselves in this unique world.
"When Riot Force 6 dealt with the JS Incident, it cost me Regius Gaiz. In his zeal, he'd taken a wrong turn ethically, but he'd never lost sight of one thing: the importance of preserving the status and prestige of the Ground Forces. Human history, regardless of world, regardless of technology or magic, is a history of warfare and conflict. Societies, no matter how utopian, inevitably fall when justice and power become divided from one another.
"The TSAB has many missions, but our part in that is not complex. We are a military organization. Our purpose is to be ready to direct armed force when and where necessary to preserve the ideals of our society. To that end we must maintain maximum combat readiness, and not become a mere appendage of other groups with fundamentally different agendas. We must do all this without losing our clear sight, so that power does not become an end in and of itself, lest we become that which we are meant to stand against." He paused, then said, "Did you know that I'm acrophobic?"
"Sir?"
"It's true. Standing here turns my damn guts to water, makes me feel like I'm going to pitch right through the glass and keep going. Of course, not being a mage I can't fly. But I stand here anyway, every single day. Do you know why?"
"As a reminder?" Hayate ventured.
"Very good, General. That's it exactly. To remind myself that I'm not some god on high without flaws, and to remind myself of whose benefit all this is for. Them." He pointed out at the city. "Those people. And all the others. Start thinking it's for yourself or for some abstract idea and you're lost."
He turned to face her.
"General Taurus has been bugging me to let her retire for three years now. I've been putting her off until I could find someone suitable to fill Gaiz's shoes, someone young and ambitious and full of fire, but with brains and spirit besides. Well, now I've found her. Congratulations, Lieutenant General, you're being offered the position of Capital City Defense Forces Commander and its sister position, Ground Forces Representative to the TSAB High Council."
Hayate tried not to let her surprise show. She'd been expecting some kind of substantial appointment once it became clear she wasn't going to receive a dressing-down, but this... Basically, Sebring was announcing that she was his new heir apparent for the post of Ground Forces Supreme Commander.
"Do you accept?"
"This is a bit of short notice, sir."
"Do you need time to think it over?"
Hayate smiled.
"No, Marshal. I'll accept."
"Good. If you'd had to think it over, you wouldn't be worthy of the appointment. Communications, open secure link to General Jillian Taurus."
The screen phased open, showing a plump, almost grandmotherly face.
"Congratulations, Jill; you're off the hook. She said yes."
"It's about time, too. Nice to meet you, General Yagami. I've kept your chair warm."
"Let's make it official, then," Sebring continued. He opened up the computer screen again. "Record position appointment, effective immediately, all relevant postings and memoranda to be issued: Position Commander CCDF, accept resignation of General Taurus, Jillian, ID code—"
General Taurus filled that in.
"—appointment effective immediately, Lt. General Yagami, Hayate, ID code—"
It was Hayate's turn, this time.
"—redirect all relevant communications to..." He paused, then asked Hayate, "General, do you have a specific call sign you'd like to use?"
She smiled back at him.
"I do. In the spirit of our discussion, please designate the operations office of the Capital City Defense Forces 'Long Arch.'"
Sebring grinned at her.
"Oh, yes, you'll do just fine."
