messiah novel (drive me crazy, part 5)

[devilism]

--- To put it directly, that guy was a spy from the North.

His name, Alexei Yuvin. 43 years old.

He had a typical Russian outward appearance, and he's a diplomat from the "Northern Alliance" who speaks Japanese fluently.

That man was found to have been looking into the Japanese public safety for a long, long time now.

The 3rd year of the imperial calendar, December 24th. It was Christmas eve and the streets of the city were crowded with couples and families going to and coming from department stores, their arms filled with paper bags.

— — — — — — — — —
"Alexei Yuvin. Let's go see someone."

After forcibly being interrupted during his meal, Yuvin was inconsicuously standing at the side of the road before being picked up by a domestic car and being brought out to the suburbs of New Tokyo.

He was being brought out here by a Japanese man who seemed to be related to public safety. The guy seemed to be young: maybe in his twenties, or even an age that would still put him in high school. Although Japanese people tend to look younger in general, he still didn't seem like he was a very skilled public safety investigator.

(He had heard that since the World Reform the Japanese police had been de-militarized, but he wasn't sure about those public safety guys.)

Yuvin thought that he could take him out with a shoulder throw if needed.

The ethnic food restaurant in Shinjuku where he had been having meetings with a researcher of the Japanese Meteorological Agency, Shinmoto Keisuke, had been stepped into by public safety. At that moment he accepted his fate that his long promising career as a diplomat would have come to an end.

He had been learning potentially useful information there from Shinmoto about a new technology Japan was developing to use weather satellites for image processing purposes. Of course Yuvin had been passing along all that information during the three years he kept in contact with Shinmoto to the North, where they could put the technology to use for a military satellite.

He was a spy that feigned being a diplomat. No, it was perhaps better to say that being a spy was only second nature when you were a diplomat.

(That country, Japan, is so foolish.)

No matter whether it was about people appointed to Japan, businessmen of foreign-owned enterprises, soldiers from the North or Japanese literary scholars, Yuvin had that sort of impression of Japan.

It's since the word "intelligence" doesn't exist in Japan. There's no such thing as crisis management for the citizens to begin with. No one would even know if the man eating a hamburger next to you would be a spy receiving a micro chip through a straw.

Because of that Yuvin wasn't in a hurry. Even if public safety did find him here, he'd immediately get orders from the embassy to return to his home country. And after changing his face, he would be going back to Japan once more. After all, even if a diplomat is arrested, their fingerprints aren't even being taken and recorded in this country.

There's practically no public safety in Japan. The half-hearted defense corps of this country had lost all of their fuctions due to the badly patched together constitution.

(It's an easy country to be a spy in. No matter what happens in Japan, I won't be judged for it. I won't be killed either. All the puppets of the North should want to go to Japan.)

When the car stopped and his back was pushed so he would get out, and even though he was blindfolded, he could tell that it wasn't a very populated area, considering there weren't any lights around. But Yuvin wasn't nervous at all, he was at ease.

No matter how much they would be threatened, the Japanese police couldn't do anything to him, other than force him to leave the country.

He had already gotten all information he needed from Shinmoto, so he was already finished with that guy. Even if he'd be caught now, there would be no deviation in the plan.

At any rate, it was a nervous-seeming public safety investigator. He looked young.

Since Yuvin had been immediately blindfolded when he got into the van, he only now noticed that there was another person in front of him aside from the investigator, someone else was there.

Who was it? When they went to wherever this is, there wasn't another person. Did they prepare something?

The investigator approached Yuvin and took a Belomorkanal out of his pocket. It was the tabacco that Yuvin usually used in the North.*

"White Sea Canal, huh?"*

A middle-sized coat made out of blue-grey wool, skinny pants with the leg lines visible and dark brown leather shoes. A slanted bag. The man who at first glance seemed like a college students slowly raised his face.

If you would look carefully, you could notice that his face was very much arranged to look a certain way, there was no facial expression. His face almost didn't move, blinks included. He was like a mannequin in the window of a luxury brand store.

(A guy like that belongs to the Japanese public safety?)

And this guy.

This face. Was he just imagining that he had seem it somewhere before?

"Alexei Yuvin. Also known as "Wand." Residing at the Russian Federation's embassy since year 109 of the Imperial calendar. You've been pulling information about the new artificial satellite from the researcher of the Meteorological Agency, Shinmoto Keisuke... There's no doubt about it."

The Imperial calendar was Japan's own unique calendar. In this country the calendar had been used since Japan became westernized during the Meiji era.

Many of the puppets from the North had been assigned names of tarot cards by the top official of foreign intelligence, who loves the tarot. Among them "Wand" is one of the lesser arcana, whose activity in Japan has been noticied multiple times.*

"What's wrong?"

Yuvin laughed. His breath hung white in the air.

Tonight was Christmas Eve. Although it couldn't compare to the cold in the North, it still pierced Yuvin's body, who was used to living in Japan.

Yuvin realised that he could slightly smell plants in the dry winter air. This place might be a wide open park. But there weren't any street lights. There was only a slight field of vision provided by the moonlight.

(Where is this place?)

He casually stomped his feet to make sure of it. The ground under his feet was unpaved by asphalt. Since he remembered that they didn't drive for more than an hour by car, they didn't go out of New Tokyo.

"What are you planning on doing by bringing me to such a place? Do you plan on torturing me? That'd be a shame. If you'd do something like that, the embassy will start a strong protest with the Japanese government.　The only thing you can do is sending me to the embassy."

"That seems like the sort of thing soldiers stationed here by the North would say."

The man said that. Again Yuvin breathed out, his breath like powder in the air.

"I'm supposed to be a soldier stationed here? You guys' military intel isn't that great."

"Be serious."

With a weak laugh, Yuvin smoothed out.

"Fine. If you want to hit me, then hit me. But it would be better to send me home uninjured. I can't be killed by you guys or the Japanese government anyway. Moreover, you're young. Too young for public safety. Have the amount of police officers been increased by the World Reform?"

— — — — — — — — —
--- "World Reform."

That's what the disarmament agreement was called that was a revolutionary incident among all the uselessly repeating wars in the history of mankind until now.

Seven years ago at an absolute global super disarmament conference it was decided that each nation would reduce its military to no more than 0.1% of the population, as well as banning the development of weapons of mass destruction.

The first term of the treaty was set for ten years.

After the meeting countries from all over the world reduced their military and stopped the production of weapons of mass destruction.

It was practically as if all troops around the world were put in the freezer for ten years.

But that didn't mean that during that long period of ten years every country enjoyed a peaceful time without war.

Even now there were foreign countries infiltrating and trying to seize things.

All the countries in the world outsmarted the disarmament agreement one by one by expanding a different organisation instead of their army.

--- That is to say, the police.

Of course the Alliance military information bureau Yuvin belonged to also changed its name to Alliance police information bureau. Even in Japan the defense corps was momentarily disbanded and was all incorporated in the police department instead. They're the same thing, but there's just one thing that's different.

The right to kill.

The Japanese police doesn't have the active right to kill.

— — — — — — — — —
"It seems that a youngster like you hasn't been trained by public safety. It's rather insulting that a young guy like you caught me. I thought it'd at least be a commissioner."

There was no reaction. As he expected, they wouldn't feel provoked by just this much.

Yuvin continued.

"I mean, it's useless for you to do something like this. You understand, don't you? I just worked along the lines of the rights given to me."

"Worked?"

"Yeah, worked. In the North there's a law in regards to foreign intelligence. In article 13 it's established that institutional personnel can use any and all means in an undisclosed way. In other words, since I'm military institutional personnel appointed by the secretary general, I can legally do whatever I want."

Well, since you Japanese people aren't aware of counter espionage and the like, it's only natural that you wouldn't understand, so Yuvin added.

— — — — — — — — —
Institutional personnel from the North like me can use all methods--- in other words, they have the right to kill.

But in Japan there's no law against spies. Even public safety doesn't have the right to arrest them. It's beyond ridiculous, since they are a similar sort of intelligence agency.

Japan is vulnerable as a nation. And the Japanese people are powerless. Even the defense corps isn't allowed to autonomously kill their opponents. It goes without saying that the same counts for police officers.

Even if you're caught and they take a photo of you and your fingerprints, you can just change your face. You can change your fingerprints as well. You can return to continue your work there at any time.

In other words, nothing is impossible. There's no need to be afraid.

— — — — — — — — —
"I doubt that."

Yuvin gulped in surprise. A small shadow emerged from the darkness, and after another moment the shape of a person was clearly illuminated at the end of the street.

"A child...?!"

Without realising it, Yuvin let the word slip out in the language of the North.

A slender body and a height that didn't even reach up to Yuvin's shoulders. Yuvin had a fourteen year old son, was this guy even shorter than his son?

Without a doubt this person was the one that had been sitting on the back seat of the van. But Yuvin hadn't seen his face since he had instantly been blindfolded. No way, he had been such a child all along...

Yuvin was confused.

What. Why did such a kid come to catch him? He had never heard before that Japan hired children for public safety. According to the Japanese Labor Standards Act manual labor under compulsory education shouldn't be allowed unless there is a good reason for it.

"Yuvin. Don't you remember this place? Even though you've been given information, you don't know?"

"Do I remember?"

The boy slowly walked from the back of the car to where Yuvin was.

But Yuvin could only think about how his eyes were not childish at all. They weren't the kind of jet black eyes that are characteristic of Japanese people, only around the edges. But they still seemed as deep as an abyss.

Where had that guy been until now? What was he doing? --- And what did they want with that van? Why had they taken him in such a large car?

And where was this place?

"North latitude, 35.18 degrees. East longitude, 139.6 degrees."

Or so the guy spoke up.

"The information you've leaked to your home country, the initial measurements of the satellite made by M Heavy Industries."

The other man spoke up as the Yuvin's cigarette had worn out.

"What?"

"Alexei Yuvin. Of course it's a false name. When you entered the country before, your name was Ivan Konev. You have various pseudonyms, like Sergei Korpi as well. You've changed your face many times to enter the country. Since it's not needed for diplomats to register their fingerprints, the North can send the same spy to Japan as many times as they want. You're commonly known as "wand"."

That was right.

A spy like that is called "Charo" and is very useful.

No matter how many spies there are, there aren't a lot of people who would be okay with having their face frequently being changed. Even the current secretary general of the information agency, Aldrich Kamisoski is already on his third face.

Yuvin had actually made a succesful career as "Charo". In exchange for the face he had gotten from his parents, he got his current position and honor.

"That's true, officers from the public safety of Japan. Even if I get punished here, I'll just change my face and come back. You guys' weak counterintelligence doesn't stand a chance against it. I know that."

"Even with that weak counterintelligence we can take measures against "Charo" just this one time."

So the boy said.

Yuvin laughed scornfully. Japan had let him steal the information about the satellite for three years. If that's the extent of their counterintelligence, he'd just laugh.

"What kind of measures are you doing to take exactly? During the whole time I was pulling information from that idiot Shinmoto, there hasn't been anyone from public safety hanging around me, let alone inspecting me."

"Inspecting" meaning to make a detour in order to tail someone, it's jargon for changing transporartion facilities.

The glint in the boy's eye suddenly intensified.

"!"

For a moment Yuvin forgot that his opponent was a child and trembled like dust as he was faced with those black holes. He was almost sucked into them. What is this kid? They aren't the eyes of a kid that's not using their brain while trying to keep a secret from adults. Yuvin had never seen a child in Japan with those kind of eyes before. --- No adults either.

"You know it as well if you're "Charo", Yuvin. You'll surely come back as many times as you want, just like a game of whack-a-mole. That's why public safety stopped striking. Your actions will instead be shut down using a different method."

"Different?"

"To put it simply, forcing a bone into a dog's mouth so it doesn't bark."

So the boy said.

"When that dog is left alone, it starts to move around by itself and is a bother. But if it has a bone in its mouth, then it's content. Sure enough, when we threw out a bone for that purpose, it obediently stayed still for three years under our surveillance. Thanks to that, we've saved on a lot of labor costs."

"That's... ridiculous..."

Yuvin was shocked. If what this boy was saying was true, then that Shinmoto had known of his true identity all along and had fed him the information he had wanted to hear for three full years.

"There's no way. If it had been false information, my home country would have noticed it!"

"It's not fake. It's information that's usable, it's just slightly outdated. Well, we hadn't thought either that it'd be dragged out for three years."

"Wha... Then, that Shinmoto guy, who is he?"

"He isn't a researcher from the Meteorological Agency. He's a full-fledged police investigator from public safety."

Yuvin instinctively clenched his teeth.

Then what he thought to be that guy's weakness like his financial trouble and the scary wife he relunctantly married after an arranged meeting, and the expensive foreign car he had secretly bought for that wife... all of that was fake information.

Yuvin had consistently brought him money in order to obtain information from him and looked for papers that seemed necessary for that guy's research.

It was all set up. For three years.

He really was a dog that had gotten a bone shoved into its mouth. No matter how sharp a Doberman's fangs are, it can't do a thing if it can't use its mouth.

Then why have you brought me here? Why is public safety capturing me at this point...? It would have been better if you had just left me alone. So why this despite that?!"

He didn't understand the reason why Japan's public safety, that had understood everything all along, captured him specifically now.

"That's why we're at this place."

So the boy said.

"... The initial observation spot for the satellite?"

"It was necessary to ascertain how much you are trusted by your home country as an institutional member. And at the same time to check your rank as an institutional member."

"Rank?"

"There was a photo of the satellite that Shinmoto had put between the materials that you handed over to your country. You don't seem to remember it. Maybe you haven't looked very thoroughly at the contents. Because of that we were able to confirm it. You are a C. You're not a high-ranking institutional member. You don't have any important information."

Yuvin felt the lower side of his forehead burn red with humiliation and anger. Even though he knew it was a provocation, he couldn't hold back his anger.

"... I'm a man who has served the state as "Charo". I believe the state also values me for it!"

"But you don't know your own rank?"

Guh, he faltered.

The rank that had been assigned to him by the state, a practice not only carried out in the North, but in any country. With ranks assigned by the state, it could be called differentiation carried out by the state.

It was true that Yuvin didn't know his own rank. 　But there was no way he was a C ranked institutional member. He graduated from the University of Moscow with excellent grades, had already been with the intelligence department for twenty years, had been seperated from his family and motherland, and had lived while giving everything up for the country. He was that sort of person.

"We wanted to know your rank. That's why we got you to come out here. If you're an important person to your country, they would have sent out an order to save you after seeing the photos of the satellite we courteously sent to your country. But..."

While he said that, he shifted the sleeve of his coat to take a glance at his wristwatch.

"Although fourty minutes have passed, no one came. You also haven't been contacted through your cellphone."

"...Tch."

So Yuvin said.

"So that means you're not an important person. Because of that there's no point in torturing you. It's for sure that you don't have any decent information. Japan's public safety doesn't have time to spare for that."

Maybe if you had been ranked B or higher, the boy continued.

"Then we would certainly have taken you away to some place and slowly gotten the information you have out of you. There's a lot of things the government wants to know. You probably know this already, but in just a couple of years it'll be the tenth anniversary of the "World Reform." Everyone is holding their breath and watching to see if the countries that signed the treaty are really keeping it and reducing their army. Of course we want to know information about the North, just like any other country. --- But you don't seem to have any information that would be beneficial enough."

Just like a child that lost interest in a toy, the boy suddenly lost the glint in his eyes. To Yuvin it seemed like the boy had given up on him.

I don't have useful information.

I'm not valued highly by my country.

And yet he had devoted himself to it so much. He gave up just about anything, he had left his family behind in his home country, he had given up his language to adapt to the culture here and had even sacrificed his body---!

"You can go now. There's no use for a C class like you."

The boy's voice, cruel like no other, resounded in the night.

'Class C.' Yuvin only barely managed to keep standing instead of falling to his knees.

If he went back to the North embassy as things were now, his motherland would not allow him to go back to his own country.

Yuvin's country already knew that he had been caught by public safety. Besides, who knew what they were thinking about the fact that Yuvin had been in contact with Japan's public safety. It wasn't impossible that they would suspect him of being a double agent with how suspicious his country usually was.

What should I do? Is there no other choice right now than to abandon my country and run away to some far away foreign country?

(... No, this is a trap.)

Power returned to Yuvin's eyes.

(What these guys are saying is bullshit. They're trying to shake me up and keep me from sending more of the information I've stolen from Shinmoto to my country.)

What on earth are these people?

They accurately knew where he had met Shinmoto, they had efficiently secured it, and they skillfully carried out a chain of events to kidnap him deep into the mountains. It was for sure that they belonged to Japan's public safety.

But even for police officers right out of high school they were too young to the point it was unbelievable. They were too young, these two police investigators...

(No way.)

As an uncomfortable feeling rose within him, Yuvin finally understood.

(No way, Sakura.)

The National Public Safety Commission, Security Bureau Special Public Safety Section 5.

Section 5 was said to have recently been launched as public safety's elite as a support kind of organisation for Section 4. Yuvin knew that they were commonly called Sakura.

It was actually an organisation of spies with a special right to kill.

— — — — — — — — —
No matter what the Japanese law states and no matter what diplomacy has resigned to, none of that applies to Sakura.

It's since they don't have the Japanese nationality. Nor a family register. Nor a residence card. They're not even Japanese citizens.

That's why Sakura are like a kamikaze attack. More than a honorable defeat or a resolution to a situation, they ensure their target will die.

Cadets are gathered with various ages, genders, backgrounds and appearances, trained at special training schools for their position and then scattered all around the world.

— — — — — — — — —
If those two were Sakura, then it would make sense why the mood they create was so disconnected and they were so young.

(I'll be killed.)

Yuvin started panicking.

He thought that the Japanese people were cowardly. Even the defense squads had been tied down by the laws that don't let them shoot unless their opponent attacks first, and those laws were upkept with great devotion. Police officers and the like weren't enough to be afraid.

But Sakura were entirely different.

They didn't have laws, mercy, pity or even a nationality.

Since they weren't even alive.

(I have no choice than to escape.)

Yuvin tried to calm down his heart that kept pounding without end, and he quickly tried to organise his thoughts.

First of all he had to escape this place. They wouldn't be caught here. No matter whether their words were true or not, if they were Sakura then they wouldn't hesitate to kill him.

(Running away it is. All I have to do is run away...)

No matter what, if he succeeded in running away to the embassy, then it would be a victory for him. Sakura wouldn't be able to come over there. It was still against the rules for the Japanese public safety to lay their hands on the embassy's extraterritoriality.

"Out of the way!"

Suddenly Yuvin rushed forward to bump into the boy.

Before the boy who had failed to avoid him could take on a defensive posture, Yuvin took his necktie pin off with a sudden motion and slid off the cover with his thumb.

The exposed blade dazzled dangerously. It was long. It wasn't something that was commonly sold. It was a weapon.

To avoid Yuvin's counter, the boy quickly twisted his body.

It was a momentary gap.

Yuvin's necktie pin stabbed deeply into the left side of the boy's chest.

"Guh..."

The boy groaned and collapsed forward onto the ground.

(Alright, I did it!)

He ran over to the van and quickly jumped into the driver's seat. Yuvin had checked when he was taken out of the car that they had left the key in the van.

"Go!"

The mannequin-like guy jumped onto the car's hood and tried to stop Yuvin's escape one way or another.

But with a big turn of the steering wheel the car shook so much that the man was thrown off. As he passed the man a big rock was thrown against the window, breaking it, but Yuvin still escaped from that place.

The car was a rental car. But it was fine in this situation. As long as he just succeeded in escaping to the embassy, then this would be his victory.

He could do anything when the people he was confronted with were only a young man and a child.

Just as always, Japan was foolish. They had a poor endgame until the very end.

"This is my victory."

Yuvin mumbled that with confidence as he grasped the steering wheel tightly.

— — — — — — — — —

--- Due to the feeling of satisfaction he had gained from taking down one of the investigators, he didn't notice what was really going on until the very end.

When he hurriedly stepped onto the pedal for the brake at the first curve, it didn't work. The guardrail that curved around the turn broke, and the car along with the screams was swallowed up by the darkness of the night...

( back to index. )

notes:

* yes, it's a russian cigarettes brand that actually exists, just google it!
* the text for the brand was in katakana (that you use for example for brand names), but now it's being said out loud, they use the actual kanji for white sea instead.
* this is a canon fact that even seems to count for the current messiah series - the guys from the north in shinku are named after tarot cards as well. from memory it was hanged man and tower but i could be wrong, it's been a while since i saw the movie. their codenames are from major arcana as opposed to yuvin here.