PSIA Kansai Regional HQ, Osaka, Japan
Komakado had known going into the interview that Ayaka was probably not the Kansai-area ringleader for the Fist of Twelve. After all, it was standard practice for the PSIA to obtain a warrant and search a person's communications history before attempting an actual interview. Ms. Sasaki had some curious interests, and a brief RDP session into her family's home computer revealed little that he wouldn't expect to see on the account of a teenage girl.
Mr. Yamata was another story. His home machine was little more than a remote terminal for a virtual machine being hosted at the Kansai location… and the server at Kansai was part of an elaborate private network. At the moment, Takagi was overseeing a group of Cyberwarfare engineers as they took apart the servers and network switches in an attempt at getting at the configuration files. Talking to the ISP for the warehouse hadn't revealed much either; the Kansai server was apparently talking to its associates through a proxy server in Bulgaria, and while INTERPOL had promised to lend a hand, Komakado was expecting a dead end.
"Yamata is not a network engineer," Takagi said. "Someone must have explained to him how to set up these servers, or sent instructions. My men are sweeping the warehouse and his apartment, but if there's a clue as to where information we need is located, it must come from Yamata himself."
Which was why Komakado was now looking at the gang member through a one-way mirror. Yamata had an irritated scowl on his face as he waited, and bloodied bandages around the places where Takagi had shot him gave him a monstrous appearance. "Do we have any angles on this guy?" he asked.
"Virtually nothing," Takagi said. "He's a salaryman from Osaka. No significant relatives. Was an older Otaku back around that first time Rory, Tuka, and Lelei visited the Diet… so I guess it's an improvement?"
"Can he use magic too?"
Takagi shook her head. "Magical adepts are already a rare in the Special Region, and Yamata never lived near the Gate. Based on what I've learned from the people I talked to and population density maps, I estimate that there's a maximum of one or two other adepts in or around that portion of Tokyo, and another forty to fifty that could probably use magic if we handed them a Focus Crystal. Military Intelligence is compiling records and developing a testing procedure as we speak."
One more thing to worry about. Komakado sighed and said, "So, do you want to be the Good Cop or the Bad Cop?"
"I think I'm going to observe the professionalism of an elder in silent awe."
Komakado smirked and said, "Fine. Feel free to interrupt me once you have what you need." With that, he turned a corner and strode into the interrogation room.
Yamata got off the first volley. "Your actions are abhorrent to the gods."
"And your actions have been abhorrent in general," Komakado said. "We have a mountain of evidence showing you extorting teenagers and young adults into sponsoring or aiding terrorist actions, including a planned IED attack on the Gate facility in Ginza."
"It's the will of the Gods," Yamata proclaimed. "I am only their instrument."
Komakado folded his arms and said, "You may be too young to remember the Tokyo Subway Sarin attacks by Aum Shinrikyo. Would you like to know what happened to the leader of that particular episode? He was hung by the neck until dead. Right now, you're facing charges for terrorism, attacking officers of the law, criminal financial actions, extortion, and much, much more. Perhaps if this was America, you'd get away with being a non-law civilian in possession of any kind of firearm, but this is Japan, and you will be charged with that as well.
"What we haven't decided on yet is whether or not to charge you with International Espionage, so tell me, who are you getting your orders from?"
Yamata smiled. "I get my orders from the highest powers—"
"I don't give a damn about your Gods, I want a name and a place of someone real. Who set up your network? Who gave you your equipment?"
"Nonbelievers would not understand—"
But Komakado had already had enough. He raised one of Yamata's bandaged arms and pressed hard into the wound.
The gang leader let out an unmanly shriek before shouting, "I am a Japanese citizen and I demand a lawyer!"
"Funny time to start talking sense. I thought you were supposed to be a citizen of the Gods, or something. Give me a name and a place."
"I want a lawyer!"
"Then clear yourself of suspicion for espionage! You don't get it, Yamata-kun, under the Geneva Convention, we can do whatever the heck we want to spies! You want a lawyer, prove that you're not a spy! Name and place!"
Yamata winced away from the man, but Komakado wouldn't let him go. "I don't know!" the man shouted. "I was contacted over a Japanese server, and—"
"Then give me the logon passwords for your firewall and VPN!"
"But my master—"
"Your master isn't here. You answer to ME."
Yamata, tear trails starting to form on his face, said, "Fine! The login…"
The agent listened to it, then repeated it aloud for the room recorders. When he was finished, Yamata still had the gall to ask if he could talk to a lawyer before Komakado slammed the door in his face.
"That was fast," Takagi said.
"You thought it would take longer?"
"The Americans and Russians from Ginza after Hakone were traded back before they cracked. The Chinese agents took almost a year and a half before we got anything." Takagi shook her head. "Yamata clearly isn't trained to resist interrogation. We're looking for a handler."
A telephone on the wall went off, and Takagi rushed over to pick it up. "Yes?"
Komakado watched as the Intel Specialist took in the information. He mouthed "Network?" to her and she nodded. "Yes, yes. Understood. Thank you."
She placed the phone back on the receiver, looked back towards Komakado and said, "We've got them."
"Where?"
"Ho Chi Minh City."
Alnus, the Special Region
Ayaka was expecting her first view of the world beyond the Gate to be a beautiful, scenic view of ancient structures, people in beautiful cultural clothes, and a clear air and sky.
What she got instead was the side of a tractor-trailer, which was blasting its horn at some other vehicle as it tried to maneuver, and rain drizzling from a sky that was nighttime seven hours too early.
It had been like this through the entire experience. Once a military installation, the Gate in Ginza was now a massive customs and border control checkpoint, and they had sat in a massive traffic jam as guards went over the JSDF truck to make sure that nothing dangerous was being smuggled into the Special Region. They had then driven for what felt like an hour through the eerie blackness of the Gate itself, staring up the rear of a giant container truck hauling gasoline or kerosene or whatever merited the flammable chemicals sticker on the back.
The JSDF soldiers monitoring her didn't talk much, and whatever they had to say was often short and to the point. Sure, they had seemed nice enough at first, until the lady with the JSDF dress uniform said, "This one has access to magic and is being transported as a criminal suspect. You are authorized to shoot her if she becomes dangerous."
Of course, Ayaka had no desire to get shot, and even less of a desire to use magic in front of these people. No, she'd hold onto it until she was somewhere she could run, and then…
Eventually they reached a processing building and the soldiers ushered her out to a receptionist who handed her a plastic card on a lanyard. It featured her picture, name, birthdate, height, eye color, and a bright orange stripe with bold text in Japanese, English, and Imperial: ADEPT. "You are required to wear this prominently at all times while staying at Alnus," the receptionist said. "Using magic without first verifying with the Magic Safety Administration automatically doubles the maximum charges of any offenses committed with its use."
Finally, the truck was driven out of the JSDF base. For a moment, Ayaka got excited—finally, the new world! She pressed her face up against the truck's plastic tarp window and saw…
A strip mall.
She looked back at the soldiers in confusion and they gestured for her to get out again. Late at night as it was, the mall was mostly empty, but it pushed Ayaka to spin in place, trying to pick a sign of something, anything in the evening skyline that would suggest that she was in another world, and got nothing. The moon was barely a sliver of a crescent, and the streetlights were too bright to see the stars. In the distance, she could see the blinking red lights of tall radio masts or electricity poles. The tallest building nearby was a four-story modern cement and wood-aesthetic building with the glowing blue letters MARRIOTT featured prominently at the top. They might as well have gone to Kobé.
What was going on?
The soldiers ushered her into a cheap clothing store and gave her a budget and time limit. Maybe this would have been an interesting experience for some other girl, but not her. She picked up a number of articles of clothing, walked hurriedly towards the women's dressing room at the back, and promptly dropped everything and threw herself against the inventory room door at the rear of the store.
The soldiers were too slow to respond, and she gambled on the idea that they wouldn't shoot at a high school girl, regardless of how dangerous their commanding officer said that she was. Much to her delight, it was almost a straight shot to the loading dock at the rear of the building, and she raced off into the evening as quickly as her legs could carry her.
There has to be some kind of mix-up, she thought. This clearly isn't Alnus, this has to be some government trick, or maybe…
"Thank heavens, you're just in time!" Ayaka stopped dead in her tracks at the voice that shouted at her, and turned to see a rabbit-woman demihuman running in her direction. Ayaka didn't have much experience with foreigners, demihumans least of all, and had always wanted to talk with one, but this really wasn't the time.
"I'm sorry, but—" Ayaka started but the woman grabbed her by the wrist, with unexpected force, excitedly declaring "This way!"
The soldiers had to be looking for her at this point. She looked up, expecting to see the tell-tale blinking lights of a drone or hear the sound of a siren, but there was nothing. What's going on?
Eventually they found themselves over by the edge of the Marriot hotel building, where the Warrior bunny pointed directly up.
Standing on the edge of the roof was the figure of another human, clearly in distress, waving and exclaiming towards someone else on the roof. "He threatened to jump," the woman exclaimed. "I called Magical Services as quickly as i could, told them it was an emergency…" only now did the demihuman give her a nervous look and added, "You can catch him, right?"
Playing around with fire was one thing, but catching someone using magic? She'd never tried anything like that before and the last time she'd tried starting a fire larger than her forearm, she had injured herself. Even then, fire was the only thing she knew how to make, and she'd done it completely by accident the first time. What if, instead of catching him, she burnt him to a crisp?
He wouldn't expect that, would he? she thought with a moment of grim humor. She decided to tell the demihuman the truth… at least a little of it. "Um… my background is fire, so—"
Apparently that was enough, and the woman shouted, "I requested someone with Wind experience! Call your dispatcher right now and tell him it's an emergency!"
Ayaka's cellphone had been taken by the JSDF, of course, so she had no way to call anyone, even if she wanted to. "I'm sorry, I can't—"
Before she could finish, she heard a shout, and looked up to see the man on the building teeter over, lose his footing, and fall.
Ayaka had spent time contemplating doing such a thing before, but actually seeing it—the shape of a man plummeting to the ground—turned her blood to ice, and her hands flew up to her mouth as she tried to suppress the alarmed shriek forcing its way out of her lungs. In the final fraction of a second she shut her eyes and turned her head away, her body tensing against the inevitable crunch of bones hitting the pavement.
It never came.
Slowly, she opened her eyes and turned to look back in the direction of the building and saw the man suspended centimeters above the ground, trembling against a shock that never happened, his body surrounded by a bluish energetic aura. Magic.
Did I do that? Ayaka wondered, but decided against it. Creating fire had a different feeling to it, almost a sort of assertion or sense of direction. Did different kinds of magic feel differently?
"I have him," said a voice behind her, and Ayaka looked over her shoulder.
The mage had flowing white and pale green robes covered in blue lines and geometric patterns, and held a long white staff tiped by a teardrop-shaped crystal. Her hood obscured her face, but it was obvious enough from her figure and voice that it was a female mage that had saved the jumper from a gruesome death.
With a wave of her arms, the mage cancelled her spell and the man fell the last few inches to the ground. 'Thanks!" The bunny-woman shouted, then ran over to secure the man, now cowering on the pavement.
Ayaka wasn't sure what to do next, so she offered mage a bow, said, "Thank you for your help," and was about to run off again when the mage placed a hand on her shoulder, stopping her.
"Sasaki Ayaka-chan?"
Ayaka felt as if the mage had hit her with a bolt of lightning. Who was this? How did they know her name? Whoever it was, they had to be in cahoots with the JSDF, and that meant it was time to run again. "I'm sorry!" She said, trying to slip from the magician's grip, "You must have someone else—"
"You're lying."
Each of the magician's statements so far had been short and terse, yet had a strange monotony to them that made it hard for Ayaka to determine precisely what her captor's feelings were. "Let me go!" She shouted. "Let me go or I'll burn you!"
The mage did just that, and for a fraction of a second, Ayaka sprinted away in terror before crashing to a sudden halt. The thing that she hit was invisible, and on scrambling back to her feet she stuck her hand out to test it and found whatever it was to be tough, but not hard, like a gym mat. She turned around and saw the mage, standing there, staring at her. Ayaka held up her bandaged arm and said, "I swear, I'll do it. I'll set you on fire!"
The mage seemed to consider her for a moment, then said, "Okay."
"Okay!?"
"Yes. Set me on fire."
So Ayaka tried. She reached out in the way she'd discovered and pushed. A gout of fire appeared at her fingertips, then died.
The mage did not move.
"That was a warning!" Ayaka promised. "I'll do it, I swear!"
Ayaka detected the barest hint of a sigh from the mage, who took a step forward.
The burst of flame was much larger this time, and for one terrifying moment, Ayaka thought that she had succeeded, but was shocked to see the jet of flame redirected up and harmlessly into the sky. She took a step back, unsure, and was equally shocked when a robed hand reached through the fire and grabbed her wrist. The shock was enough to break her concentration, and the flames vanished.
"Bad technique," the mage said. "Bad fundamentals too. You could set yourself on fire. Is that why your arm is bandaged?"
"Why do you care!?"
"General Kengun asked me to help you, and so I shall."
It was at that point that she finally took off her hood, and Ayaka found herself staring at a familiar face. The turquoise eyes and electric blue hair were unmistakable.
Ayaka stopped resisting immediately. If she was correct, the person holding her was one of the most powerful magicians in the Special Region, partially due to her position as the most informed person with regards to 'magic' both as a Falmart practice and an Earth science. "How did you find me?" Ayaka asked.
Lelei La Lalena pointed at the identification badge hanging from a lanyard on Ayaka's neck. "I tracked that." She turned and said, "Let's go back to the JSDF."
"What if I say no?"
"Okay." She started to walk.
For a moment, Ayaka stood there, confused. Lelei couldn't actually be letting her go, just as she hadn't actually allowed herself to be set on fire. I guess when you have that kind of power, it doesn't matter what other people say or think. If I don't move, she'll probably lift up that staff and have me dragged along by magic. She sighed and fell into line behind Lelei.
The streets were quiet, and as Ayaka peeked around the older mage to get a look at her expression, all she caught was a bland look, directed down into a Samsung smartphone as she walked. Ayaka wasn't sure what was on the display, but assumed that it was an article of some kind.
"Umm… I'm sorry about the fire," Ayaka said.
Lelei nodded, as if it wasn't all that important. Perhaps to her, it wasn't.
"And I wanted you to know, I'm a big fan of your work. You have lots of fans in Japan, and there's a whole group of webcams set up around Tokyo bay that try to catch a glimpse of whenever you open up Gates for the ships to go through. If I'd known it was you, I wouldn't have attacked, so I'm really, really sorry!"
She gave a deep bow for further emphasis.
Lelei did not look up from her phone and kept going. "Okay," she said.
The single word from Lelei was as crushing as any response could have been. Okay, okay, okay… is that how she reacts to everything? The mage seemed nonplussed by the whole incident, and Ayaka was increasingly under the impression that she was talking to a robot instead of a person… no, even that wouldn't be accurate. Alexa, Cortana, Google, and Siri sounded chipper when they talked back. Perhaps talking to a tree would be a better comparison; you knew it was alive, but it gave no indication that it actually cared about your words.
Minutes later they were back at the strip mall and clothing store, where the JSDF soldiers were waiting patiently, as if the entire situation had been planned from the start. Perhaps it was? Either way, they gave Lelei a respectful bow, and gestured Ayaka to go back into the store and try again.
After picking out a few simple garments, she returned to find a soldier in a slightly dressier uniform, who was holding a seemingly pleasant, if quiet conversation with Lelei. On seeing Ayaka, he turned, gave her a fake smile and a short bow and said, "A pleasure to meet you, Sasaki-chan. I am Warrant Officer Tomita Akira, and I'll be handling your case during your stay in the Special Region. I assume that Komakado-san did not give you many details, is that correct?"
Ayaka nodded, but said nothing. Now wasn't the time, particularly not with Lelei's dead-fish stare watching her every move.
"Most magicians in the Special Region are detected early, and they have a culture of other magicians to support them and their abilities," Tomita explained. "We don't have a support system like that in Japan, so instead we brought you here to go through the traditional Falmart system of magic education. We'll be observing your progress and getting regular notes from your teacher, and hopefully we'll learn how to handle cases like yours in the future domestically."
Try as she might, Ayaka couldn't hold back the frown forming on her face. More observations, more tests, another school. This was not what she had hoped to experience beyond the Gate.
"Sasaki-chan?"
"So I'm to be your pet, is that what you're saying? I am your lab animal?"
Tomita winced at the statement. In Japanese society, it was unusual for a younger person to snap at an older person like that, and Ayaka knew it. Too bad. "No, that's not it." Tomita said. "We just want to help, that's all."
"I don't want your help. I want you and all your fake friends to leave me alone so I can find something real."
Tomita raised an eyebrow. "Something real? Like what?"
"Like—" Ayaka struggled to put it into words, and seethed at the thought that Tomita probably found this funny. "Like whatever happened to everyone when the Gate opened."
Tomita frowned, and this made her feel better somehow. He didn't get it either; none of the other adults really did, so it wasn't a big surprise. Ayaka turned to Lelei and said, "How about you, can you tell me where to find something like that?"
Lelei blinked, slowly, once.
"Okay."
Ayaka felt her guts do a somersault as her body tried to figure out how to respond to that. Excitement—did she really know? Anger—how could she approach something this important with such nonchalance? Confusion—there was no way in hell that someone like Lelei could get what she was talking about. She wanted to scream at and hug Lelei and punch her in the face all at the same time, and all these feelings crashed into each other and came out as a weak croak. "L-liar."
"I will take you to someone who can help you," Lelei said. "In return, you will apply yourself to studying magic."
So this was the carrot to the JSDF's stick? Ayaka sighed. "My teacher will be told about this?" She asked.
Tomita laughed. "You haven't figured it out yet? Lelei is going to be your teacher. Actually, you might like to know that she volunteered for the role and insisted on getting it! Damn near stormed Kengun's office once we put out the memo."
And once again, Ayaka found herself turning on open-mouthed confusion back towards Lelei's blank expression. The most famous mage on Earth had asked for her specifically, and had come all the way out to Alnus to meet with her as soon as she arrived. "Why?"
Lelei didn't smile, but Ayaka thought she could see the woman's eyes widen a little, and the side of her mouth turn up a fraction of a degree.
She said, "I want to learn too."
