PSA:
People reading this: What does Sebas fighting Khajiit have to do with a portal opening between Tokyo and the New World?
Me: We get there when we get there!
-Let me know of any inaccuracies in this chapter.
-Next chapter should be interesting, so I'll probably start writing it quite soon.
Steel and Sorcerers – Chapter 13
Kenichi Yamato, current Director of Operations for within the Special Region stood just outside the conference room in the converted shopping mall in Ginza. Other prominent government officials were slated to arrive shortly for the meeting to discuss the incident that had occurred just two days ago.
The situation was really bad right now, and they would need to make some hard decisions in order to regain control.
Yamato suspected that one of these decisions would be for the current prime minister, Boshihide Suga, to resign. As for his successor, Yamato wasn't sure. He had originally planned to use mind-control magic in order to manipulate events from behind the scenes, but apparently even the weaker mind-control spells such as 'charm species' were 4th tier, which was quite rare. Still, he might not need the help of magic. If Suga ended up resigning, Yamato planned to enter into the running for the appointment of a successor. Due to his past work as the Crisis Operations Director, he was fairly popular amongst the people, and his political views meant he was popular within the party. In addition, his current role as Director of Operations for within the Special Region meant he had unique knowledge and experience that would be essential for Japan's future, for which the special region would almost certainly be centre-stage. However, his past blunders such as failing to prepare adequately for the recent incident could be a problem.
'Ah, they've arrived,' thought Yamato as he saw the group of officials approaching.
As the soundproofed door clunked shut, they would now be able to begin the meeting. The room had several anti-surveillance measures in place, so what they said in here shouldn't be able to escape to the outside. At this, Yamato set the meeting into motion.
"As you may be aware, there has been a massive attack on our base within the special region by an independent combined force of goblins, barghests, ogres, trolls and others, resulting in almost 100 casualties and the damage or destruction of a great deal of equipment. One of these trolls made it all the way past the defences and into Ginza itself, where it was dispatched by members of I Corps from the United States Army, Japan, creating a great deal of noise in doing so. In addition, footage was secretly taken of the destruction of this troll which has been circulated online, causing major civil unrest. In order to deal with this, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Boshimitsu Motegi has been working closely with a number of departments to formulate a response."
"Yes, thank you Yamato-san. We have indeed come up with three possible courses for action, which I shall now explain.
The first of the three options is to try and cover up the incident, for example saying that the footage is fake, and was created using video-editing software. If successful, this would quell the worst of the unrest and allow us to continue our operations in the special region unhindered. However, it should be noted that this plan has a high risk of failure due to the large scale of the incident, and the many deaths involved among other factors.
The second option is the opposite of this. We would reveal everything we know to the public. If they even believed what we told them, this would likely cause massive instability in the short-term, but allow recovery in the long-run. This would also likely cause us to lose our monopoly on operations within the special region, as the international community would almost certainly become involved.
The third and final option we have put together is what I personally believe to be the most viable. In this plan, we would reveal a part of the truth, confirming the existence of the gate and how it seems to lead to a different world. However, we would downplay the significance of that world, saying it lies somewhere in a distant galaxy rather than in what may be a whole new universe. In addition, we would say the planet itself is fairly barren, only containing limited numbers of hostile and unintelligent lifeforms such as the creatures that attacked us. In this way, we could decrease public unrest and the lower the likelihood of losing our monopoly on the special region. This also has the added bonus of allowing us to act and conduct operations far more openly, with greater resources at our disposal."
"Thank you Motegi-san" said Yamato. "Now, let us hold a vote to decide our course of action. Please raise your hand for option 1."
Just a couple of members raised their hands.
"Now for option 2."
It was more than before, but still only a few people were in favour of this option.
"Now, for option 3."
At this, everyone else unanimously raised their hands.
"It's settled then" announced Yamato, "We shall proceed with Plan 3. Oh, your excellency. Did you have something to add?" Prime minister Boshihide Suga had raised his hand to speak.
"Thank you Yamato-san, I indeed do. I would like to address some of the finer details of Plan 3. I intend to hold the outlined speech in just two days, and have already begun finalising a draft."
'As expected of the prime minister' thought Yamato. 'To have already known about this course of action and to have already planned ahead.'
"At the end of the speech, I shall announce my resignation."
'Oh? So he's going to take the blame after-all' thought Yamato.
"As for my successor, as many of you know I shall be giving Yamato-san my full endorsement."
'Oh?!'
"I am aware of Yamato-san's aspirations, and believe he is an ideal candidate. It is my hope that the rest of you also share this opinion. The process of electing the next prime minister from amongst the other contenders will be a process that usually takes around two weeks, but due to the current situation we may be able to decrease that time slightly. Until then, we will also need to find a new Director of Operations for within the Special Region, as Yamato will be occupied with his new role. In addition, we will need to make this position public, as it has so far been a secret.
One last thing to consider is Yamato-san's involvement with the special region up until now. During this time he has clearly made a number of blunders, resulting in incidents such as the one that occurred most recently."
Yamato gulped nervously.
"However, despite this I believe that he has been a mostly competent leader, who has done the best he could with managing the abnormal situation that has been the appearance of the gate. After-all, the troll that did make it through into Ginza was dealt with swiftly thanks to his preparations. Now, the public may not share this view, and implicating Yamato with these crises would likely bring down his popularity. For this reason, I must ask that all of you keep Yamato's current role and involvement with the special region a secret. Instead, I will take responsibility for his past actions. That is all."
"I would like to express my most sincere gratitude your excellency" said Yamato. "I will do my best in the candidacy, and if elected I shall make sure not to forget the lessons learned from your example.
Now, I believe Motegi-san would also like to make some further comments about Plan 3, with regard to the aftermath."
"Thank-you Yamato-san. After his excellency makes his address to the nation, we will have far greater freedom to allocate resources to operations within the special region, as mentioned previously. Resources, that Japan may not be able to spare, as certain neighbouring countries may seek to seize control of the gate for themselves. Thus, we will likely have to seek even greater US involvement in the special region. This of course raises the issue that the increased US involvement could outpace that of our own, causing us to lose control over the operation. This is indeed an issue; however I believe it is not as big of a problem as you might think.
The US will likely support Japan in any decisions we make, as long as it benefits them. Our current agreements regarding the sharing of access, resources, and information about the special region mean they have little reason to interfere, as any advances we make will be shared with them anyways.
I should also stress the importance of maintaining our strong ties with the US. Since we will be announcing the existence of the gate to the world, we will need the US diplomatic power and veto when UN the inevitably gets involved in order to help maintain our control over the special region. Involving the US more in these operations will also increase their incentive to protect our current monopoly both diplomatically and militarily.
That will be all. Back to you Yamato-san."
"Thank you for that very informative briefing Motegi-san.
The next thing I would like to discuss is probably something that has been weighing on your minds for some time now. That being the recent failure to properly defend against the attack on our base in the special region. I don't intend to make any excuses, rather I will point out what we will do to ensure something like this doesn't happen ever again.
We were aware of the trolls' regeneration ability, and that it could be easily countered with fire. However, we weren't aware of the presence of a large number of trolls in the Great Forest of Tob, or that they were part of a large hostile coalition. Thus, due to our limited resources we didn't think acquiring large numbers of flame-throwers and other incendiary weapons would be necessary.
To make sure we are given full warning of any possible future attacks, information gathering will be paramount. This will include tasks such as creating accurate and detailed maps of the special region, which will include what sorts of entities can be encountered there. To speed up the information gathering process we will also relax restrictions on units operating within the special region regarding carrying certain items from Earth, as long as they are concealed. For example, not being able to use radios was significantly hampering communications. In addition, we will need to establish a more effective defensive perimeter, and expand our facilities to support greater operations. Clearing new ground is slow and difficult since the base is located in a forest, and we also can't be too noisy due to the presence of a nearby village. However, at the moment we don't have any other viable areas to expand into so we don't have a choice.
Regarding the village, it lies in the territory of the Re-Estize kingdom near their border with the Baharuth Empire, both human-dominated nations. These two nations are on bad terms with each other, and have annual wars, which the Empire seems to be on the winning side of. Meanwhile, not too far to the south lies the Slane Theocracy. While the Re-Estize kingdom and the Baharuth empire seem to have comparable strength, the Slane Theocracy is estimated to be far more powerful. Their foreign relations are not fully known yet, but they seem to be supporting the Baharuth Empire. In addition to these three human-dominated nations, there are many other nations further away, often consisting of non-humans. However, due to their distance we currently have limited information on them.
The region of the Great Forest of Tob which the base is located in is technically uncontrolled neutral territory. However, since it lies on the border between the Re-Estize kingdom and the Baharuth Empire, declaring our existence may provoke them. It will hinder our movements slightly, but continuing to operate under the guise of being a mercantile organisation should still enable us to fulfill many of our objectives without attracting their attention. At least until we better establish ourselves in the special region. Japan has far more manpower and resources than these nations in the special region. For example, the Re-Estize kingdom has an estimated population of just 9 million compared with Japan's 126 million. However, they have magic, as well as certain powerful individuals such as 'adventurers'.
Regarding magic, there seems to be two main systems we have found so far. Tier magic is like what one would normally think of when the term magic is brought up, involving spell-casting. Martial arts on the other hand are like a warrior's magic, consisting of special moves. Within the tier-magic system, there also exists the ability to craft scrolls, wands and staves, which allow one to use spells without the consumption of mana. However, these items still require the user to have some level of skill in magic, thus can't yet be used by us. There also exists the ability to enchant and create magic items, and many of these items can even be utilised by our own people. Thus, there have been efforts to procure and research them on a large scale.
Individuals from within the special region seem to have the ability to grow stronger over time, or 'level-up'. Research is ongoing into whether this same process can be achieved by our own people, but results haven't been promising so far. I should also mention that it is possible for individuals from the special region to use and regenerate magic on Earth. This is troubling as it means that we won't have as much of a home-field advantage should they manage to invade, however it also indicates that we may be able to use magic on Earth for our own benefit. Based on our experiments, we believe that magic casters regenerate mana using their own bodily energy stores obtained from food and drink. Although, the mechanism isn't yet fully understood. As for learning magic, in the special region, people seem to mostly be randomly born with or without the ability to use and learn magic. Whether people from Earth can use magic is also still unknown, and we are still in the process of translating books we have acquired on magical theory.
The final and possibly the most important topic I would like to discuss is how to counter special threats. There was a large invisible snake-like creature that participated in recent attack on our base in the special region. This creature was invisible to our men on the ground, but was visible through the thermal imaging systems mounted on certain vehicles there. In addition, there have been reports of large spider-like creatures in the forest with a similar ability. To counter such entities, we will increase our acquisition and deployment of infra-red sensitive devices. There is also the issue of finding a good way to counter magic. It has been reported that copper can interfere with information gathering spells, but we need to do our own testing to confirm this.
That is all for now. Expect for us to hold another meeting in the near future as the situation develops further. There are many more things we still don't know, such as about the existence of undead, and how they work, but with all of your continued cooperation it is my hope that we will become better prepared to face the threats, and reap the benefits presented to us by the special region."
As Yamato departed the meeting room, he thought back to a tale that had been passed onto him by an agent returning from the Baharuth Empire.
It spoke of a country inhabited by beast-men, located somewhere to the south-east. Within this country long ago, there was a certain city. It had a population of over 100,000 people, a bustling metropolis amongst the mountainous terrain that it was built in.
However, that city was now a ruin. It was destroyed not by war, disease, or any other natural disaster, but by three legendary undead monsters that suddenly appeared in the city. These undead monsters were known as Soul Eaters.
By the time the onslaught had come to an end, the city had been destroyed, and 95% of its inhabitants killed. It was abandoned, and was known today as the Silent City.
Part of the appeal of Plan 3 was that it enabled extra resources to be devoted to the special region. To prevent Tokyo suffering a similar fate to the city from the tale, these additional resources would have to be utilised effectively. Their information gathering and research operations would also need to be increased massively in order to find, and be able to exploit any weaknesses such entities may have.
The reason why he didn't bring up this tale during their meeting was firstly because it was only a tale, and was yet to be confirmed. For all they knew the stories may have been exaggerated, and the Silent City might not even exist at all. The second reason was that the various officials had enough to worry about with the recent incident, and Yamato didn't want to add the threat of total destruction to that list.