messiah novel (you are in shine, part 17)

[devilism]

Despite it having had a huge remodelling in recent years to become more modern, Ushio Jinjirou didn't like the Prime Minister's official resident very much.

New Tokyo, Chiyoda district, Nagata-chou, second city block. All of the government's cabinet meetings were held there every day.

The Prime Minister's residence is right next to it, so there's very little commuting time.　It was a dream-like location for any office worker who had to commute to the city center for a long time from his commuter town.

But his wife Kayoko hated the rumors about ghosts appearing in the official residence, and hadn't stayed in the official residence even once after the inauguration. Therefore he was practically always alone while the parliament was in session. He was forced to live away from his family for his work in Tokyo, sleeping at the official residence and occassionally going to his parents' house in Yokoteramachi during the weekends.

His parents' house, where his wife and son lived, was built by a certain famous architect on a plot of land of about 300 square meters. It was a western-style house that was built approximately 30 years ago. It had a retro sort of feel to it and didn't look like something that was newly built. Since his wife liked the kitchen that had been renovated to be more user-friendly, she didn't want to leave that house.

The Ushio family was a prestigious family that had been producing politicians for generations. The chairman of a certain electric goods manufacturing company was related to his mother, and he himself couldn't deny that his political activities were supported a lot by the construction company that his wife's family owned.

Out of all of the things in this world, money is the most important thing.

".... That's why, if at all possible, I'd like for your wife and son to come to the Prime Minister's official residence. Today or tomorrow, for security reasons."

The police department's vice-chief, Kurusu Masato, said so with a stern face.

"Not only would I like for them to come here, but I would prefer it if your son could abstain from going to school until Memorial Day."

"Even if you say that, I can't do it. I can't just leave my family alone in this house."

Junjirou was glum.

He would turn 59 years old this year. He was quite on the young side for a Japanese Prime Minister.

Since he married late, his only child Yoshiya was still a second year student in high school. And being in high school was the toughest part of your life.

"He's worried about his exams from this point on, and he insists on taking a mock exam next month. It's like that. Well, and he himself thinks that someone just spilled ink on him. My wife wouldn't stop crying."

"Let alone crying, your family should stay at home even if it knocks them out."

One could sense from Kurusu's facial expression that he just thought it all was a bother.

From his looks, Kurusu - who was often called the "talking rock" or the "socializing rock" - seemed like a teacher, even to the person who was the Prime Minister of a whole country.

"There's no way your son wouldn't see it from the news on TV. There will be a time where you will have to honestly tell him about it as the Prime Minister."

Junjirou stayed silent, as if to say that he would have done it a long time ago if there were an appropriate time for it.

The Sovereignity Party, which he was the leader of, was the leading party at the last election for the House of Representatives, and he had only just snatched up the political power.

But since they had suddenly won the elections after the two party system of the Civil Rights Party and the Liberty Renewal Party, it would easily end up getting turned around again in a different election if they implemented poor policy. As a result politicians were always busy with election activities in the countryside and neglected their original obligations, the national politics.

Furthermore, the election for the House of Representatives was coming up in April.

For Junjirou, who had taken over after the previous Prime Minister resigned due to verbal gaffes and slipping up on base questions, it was his first election for the House of Representatives. He absolutely couldn't lose.

The official residence had visitors practically every day, and his schedule was also entirely centered around the elections. He really didn't have any spare time to take care of his family.

"I understand that you are busy, but it's a matter of life or death for your son."

"But the previous sniping was only meant as a threat, right?"

Junjirou said so while mixing milk in the ice coffee his aide had made for him.

"Generally speaking, it couldn't have been more than a threat to my son. It would look too bad for their reputation when all of the world leaders are gathering in New Tokyo soon. Even the North must understand as much."

"Nevertheless, it's about your son. Don't you understand the message they're giving us?"

Junjirou ignored Kurusu's unpleasant words by pretending to be entirely focused on drinking his iced coffee.

He already understood it, after all.

In fact, only ten minutes before this officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stopped by to explain to him in detail what sort of attitude he should take on from now on, what he should do, and what his schedule was.

For the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the election for the House of Representatives didn't matter a whole lot. No matter who the ruling party was, it didn't change a lot about the foreign policy. Right now the companies were donating about fifty-fifty between the parties, and a scheme was established to put politicans' minds at ease about the election.

And so the people from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had said this. In order to win the elections, he had to first of all make the World Reforming a success. Even if you'd disarm even more, it'd be useless unless the treaty is continued. Japan was the only victim of atomic bombing in the world, and so only they could draw the attention from other nations by wielding the peace card.

They were in favor of continuing World Reforming in alignment with their ally, America. They had said the ruling party and the cabinet should put forth more effort into the negotiations about the vote.

(But the police thinks differently.)

The police's plan was clear, considering they had sent Kurusu to him, who was known among the police force as quite the hardliner.

"The North, China and the East Asian Alliance are planning on opposing the disarmament this time around. Especially in Africa, where there's a lot of terrorism, the armies have barely been dismantled despite the disarmament having begun ten years ago. Even now practically that whole area continues to express their opposition. "World Reforming" is practically useless, it just looks nice on the outside. And yet the Ministry of Foreign Affairs wants to draw out the old alliances, even though we're not seeing any gains from it."

"In other words, the Ministry of Police is of the opinion that Japan should no longer agree with the disarmament?"

"It's my personal opinion."

How ridiculous, Junjirou shrugged. 　When he looked at the Chief Cabinet Secretary, who also occupied a side of the official residence, he purposefully avoided his gaze.

(It can't be that the vice-chief of the Security Bureau would ask for a meeting just to state his own personal opinion.)

But it was for sure that the Ministry of Police had quite a bit of power that they could book the Prime Minister's coffee break during this busy time.

The top priority for the Ministry of Police ever since the World Reforming had been to restore the troops that had been temporarily evacuated to the police department in accordance with the disarmament treaty. They had been appealing to the Civil Rights Party for a long time now to try and acchieve that.

The Ministry of Police had an enormous amount of block votes ever since they took in a lot of the troops and got upgraded. There were many politicians who, during this time where companies could no longer support just one party, relied on this vote.

(Yes, other than chief cabinet secretary Narashino practically the whole Civil Rights party depends on police votes and local effort. Right now there's not a single politician who can ignore that organisation.)

For the people within that huge organisation there was no bigger nuisance than World Reforming.

Former army members who have become regular police officers, members of the rescue squad who had their name changed to life rescue aid organisations.. They all thought that treaty just had to be shredded and abandoned.

(It was just like whale fishing. Organisations who have something to do with it just nudge the government one way or another, while regular Japanese citizens know nothing about it.)

The people would have no way of knowing how much wasted money had been moved around during the decade after the super disarmament for the acceptance of the ex-troops.

They know nothing and only believe whatever information the mass media puts out, only consuming important news that concerns national politics as a trivial daily conversation topic.

A peaceful Japan.

They had no idea who they were being saved by and what they were being protected from.

Without knowing it, they just repeat the same thing over and over. They want to be saved, they want to live in comfort, and...

"In any case, we have assigned 6 SPs to your son who has been shot at, just in case. Just like you say, Prime Minister, I don't believe that they will shoot with real bullets. But if it becomes more serious, it's a common tactic of our opponent to feign a traffic accident to cause paralysis in the lower half of the body."

"What, the lower half of the body?!"

"There are quite a lot of precedents."

So the chattering rock calmly said.

"That's... No matter how you look at it, that sort of revenge.."

"I've heard that you attended a lecture once about the way of thinking of the communist block."

"I heard about it. I heard about it, but.."

There are actually few politicians in the world that could say they are experts in some field. A field of expertise is picked for many once they join a political party, based on their background. After that they study.

But when you're the Prime Minister, it isn't enough to just know about your own field of expertise. And even as an important figure within a party there's no guarantee that you end up becoming a minister in a field that you know a lot about.

Therefore they always have to study. Government officials volunteer as teachers in order to get what they want. And because of that politicians are gradually broken down by the aggressiveness of the bureaucrats and initiatives to draft government policies end up being done by them rather than the politicians.

"In fact, the North's secretary general, Kaminski, who's part of their intelligence agency, has often come to Japan during the spy era. He knows everything about the nature of the Japanese people. It's for sure that he would make full use of the lack of a law against spying in Japan."

"A law against spying, huh..."

It had already been said for a long time that Japanese counterintelligence was nothing but child's play.

There weren't many spies like you'd see in spy movies, but the majority of spies were industrial spies. If everything was left as-is, the high-tech industry, which was Japan's lifeline, could start to shake on its foundations.

Spies were necessary. Otherwise they would even be taken lightly during diplomacy after all was said and done.

"That is... I'm pretty much aware that Public Safety and the army is a necessesity. But my selling point is "love and peace." The Ushio family has already had that selling point as part of their personality for over a century, and me myself for thirty years. With that "love and peace" I can't aggressively be opposed to disarmament. You understand that, right?"

"......."

"It's difficult even for me. I'm originally mostly from the business world, from financial circles. It's my wife's and my mother's money. It's like I'm being carried by a worn-out palanquin. But at this point in time I can't get out of it. Palanquins are only used for important occassions like festival. And this festival are the elections and the formation of a cabinet."

Since this was a story that they had heard many times already, Kurusu and Narashino let their gaze wander without changing their facial expression even one bit. Their faces practically said "what is it with this love and peace?"

Junjirou continued after giving those two a sidelong glance.

"That's why we haven't been working on an anti-spy law, and covered it with the budget. That's right, didn't you make a new kind of Public Safety with that, Kurusu-kun?"

Kurusu turned his gaze towards Junjirou.

"That's right, you said it was called Sakura. It's an organisation which covers the lack of an anti-spy law."

"... It's Special Public Safety Section Five."

"It's called Sakura since they're told to elegantly fall when they're caught by the enemy. It sounds quite a lot like the old kamikaze units from the old days."

Narashino joked as a response. But when he looked over to Kurusu and saw the other glare at him, he quickly shut up, flustered.

"Don't think that Sakura have such a moving tale. They make many great sacrifices in order to preserve this country's order."

"They have no family register, so they're not bound to or protected by the law. That's why they have nothing other than death. I heard that they only gather those kinds of people. Criminals, former yakuza, foreign mercenaries and children. They're gathered at a secret spy school somewhere in Tokyo and receive spy lessons there. That's what your subordinates said at a previous lecture."

Junjirou drank up the last bit of his ice coffee, which had become white due to the molten milk.

"That Kaminski retaliated during the previous disarmament summit and gave someone a life in a wheelchair... Ah, he was called Ichijima, right..? He now leads the Sakura that you created. I respect his loyalty, that he's still with Public Safety despite his body having been injured like that. If all Japanese people were like that, we wouldn't have any problems."

Sakura and loyalty. It's almost like samurai--- so Junjirou said. His intention was to praise them. That's why he didn't notice the gaze in Kurusu's eyes getting more and more stern.

"Both me and the past Prime Ministers understood the importance of Public Safety and the police. That's why we always gave you guys the budget you wanted, didn't we? So protect my son. Somehow keep the North silent. The Japanese government must agree with the disarmament as the only country that was a victim of a nuclear bombing. It's no use if the "world" isn't yet "reformed". That's why--- "it's fine like this."

In any case, the police department would get the budget they pushed for.

During the past ten years the police department had doubled in size by being behind a lot of the policy decisions made in Japan's diplomacy and financial world. This time the police bureaucrats had only come to snatch up money. ---- Right before this election was a great opportunity for it, like a moneylender coming to collect money the moment you got your salary.

"Excuse me, Kurusu-kun. It's time to go. It's since my day is packed full of appointments."

Junjirou's two aides stood by the entrance to open the door. Kurusu silently bowed and left the office without saying a word.

"That man is no good."

"The police department assigned that man with that knowledge as well. Furthermore, you mustn't forget that that man is an expert when it comes to Okinawa and the North. Public Safety has unexpected diplomatic connections."

"Yes... Nevertheless, it costs money."

Junjirou sighed. It cost money to silence followers, and it also cost money to get followers.

"But money is important."

His sworn friend who worked for the Minister of Finance, Konno Shinsaku, once called citizens shareholders with one share each.

"They don't know that they're all extremely small shareholders. If you want to have input at the general shareholders meeting, you have to become a major shareholder."

In other words, only people who have money were able to change anything about national affairs. It wasn't just starting now.

Still, this was alright. Until now the Japanese Prime Minister wasn't able to speak well with his own words or take his own decisions. He was just a guy who wore indecisiveness like it was an outfit.

Until now he had managed to appear dashing.

Ushio didn't waver. He never showed himself hesitating.

He stayed silent, even if there were a lot of people going against something, which was sometimes picked up by the media and made him get bashed.

It would be best if the world remained peaceful. It was better to not have wars.

(It's fine like this.)

This decision wasn't wrong.

"So, who's next?"

"Hatsue-san of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs."

"Ah, that guy?"

He would obviously recommend the opposite of what Kurusu was talking about just now. And it was being said that America was pushing others in order to collect more affirmative votes for continuing World Reforming.

In other words, they were using money.

"Money, money, money, huh..."

Junjirou asked his aide for a second cup after he had drank up the ice coffee to the extend that there was only some water left.

"Put more milk in the next one."

There would be more stomachache-inducing talks in the upcoming half month. When he realised he was so fed up with it, there was a knocking sound.

"What, have they come already? Please wait a little longer."

Ushio, who had idly been looking over the documents that Kurusu had left behind..

"Prime Minister."

... raised his face at the sound of the Chief Cabinet Secretary's voice.

It was unusual for Narashino to be that pale.

"Assistant Vice-Minister Hatsue said that he couldn't come."

"Why on Earth couldn't he?"

"--- His wife and grandchild got involved in a traffic accident and are in critical condition."

As you'd expect, this time the words "it's fine like this" didn't leave his mouth.


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