messiah novel (you are in shine, part 22)

[devilism]

After they escaped being captured by Kaminari, Eiri and Haku slept in shifts in a black van.

In the middle of it, they got contacted by Gojyo Souma, who was their classmate from Maru School. They had been standby at the dorms when the day off had suddenly been revoked. It was said that they'd have to join in on the search due to the kidnapping incident.

"The chief said that those SP guys and the other police guys still don't know that there are Sakura. So there's the possibility we'll get arrested if we start doing anything here. It's a pain."

His impatience was starting to leak into his usual nonchalant tone.

"Our information is being spread through their bosses, but it's taking a long time. Anyway, it's dangerous to stand out right now. ... Well, that's a message from the chief."

Ichijima's orders were simple.

'Go home.'

When Eiri heard that message, he felt like a long abandoned factory that suddenly started moving again with the violent sound of clanking metal.

(Going... back home.)

He could understand what Ichijima was aiming at. He could make room for negotiations with the North by getting in touch with Ginzburg through using Eiri and Haku's ties with him.

If Ginzburg specially exposed himself on top of a high building in the Koto ward, it must have been without a doubt just because he wanted to meet Eiri and Haku.

But right now there was no message from him.

(Since there was a place where they could meet him even without a message. That is at my house. My house that burned down, my house where he killed my parents. If we'd go there, surely Ginzburg would be there!)

Ginzburg was a ghost. He was the very personification of the regrets of Eiri's trembling self who couldn't do anything, taken straight out of the past.

But this time he wouldn't be caught.

"Haku, there's a place I want to go."

Haku, who had been playing with the Nanny's straw in the driver's seat, glanced over.

"It's my house."

The gears started to turn.

Although he had thought that they had grown rusty and would never move again, his mind was now working with two times the force. Soon all the energy would go around and become active.

Something was about to be revealed.

He had that sort of hunch.

"Alright."

Haku closed the van door and started the engine with his other hand. Slowly the car began to move.

Suddenly Eiri wondered what kind of attitude Haku would take towards Ginzubrg.

(Haku had declared that Ginzburg wasn't his brother. Did that mean they had already completely been seperated? Or would he stop me if I killed that guy..?)

He didn't know.

Until now they had gone through many scenes filled with carnage. They had killed many people. And even though they were heading to a place where they might be killed right now, it was strange that he still didn't know anything about Haku.

(No.)

How many people were there who have been at your side in the past whose true feelings you knew for sure? In Japan-- no, in the whole wide world?

There's no one.

There is nothing like a Messiah. No one would rescue you. No one would save you. There was no one by your side.

Humans are always alone.

— — — — — — — — —
When the host, Prime Minister Ushio Junjirou, announced the opening of the second disarmament summit, a huge applause arose at the summit venue.

After the greeting from the Indian delegate, who was the vice-chairman, a statement about the significance of the disarmament and the wrongdoings and pollution formerly brought about by war was read aloud. After that they started to report on the results of these ten years of disarmament.

At the moment there were 147 countries participating in World Reforming. It was a big treaty which most of the countries in the world participated in. A huge time was spent just on reporting the results of these ten years of disarmament and the information coming from the monitoring groups that the hands of watches seemed to move in the blink of an eye.

(Why is this time going by so quickly?)

Junjirou swapped his simultaneous interpretation earpiece from one ear to another, as if he couldn't calm down. Thanks to the simultaneous translators at hand all of the things discussed ended up in his ears as Japanese.

The current report was on Europe. Germany didn't have to do much to protect the disarmament during these ten years, since all of their submarines had been turned into scrap iron. The Japanese party joked about putting tires on them and sending them out on the road, the joke inviting laughter from those present.

But he didn't laugh.

Junjirou's aide brought him a new drink. For the sake of security the representatives of every country had to pre-register the person who would function as both their aide and messenger.

Junjirou held the mineral water, which felt dull, in his mouth when he suddenly discovered that something was written on the coaster.

'There is no report yet from the police department.'

Junjirou sighed and looked across the room, where the representative from the North--- from the Russian Federation was sitting, secretary general Kaminski.

He was young. He was only 49 years young, and moreover, his appearance was really young as well. Perhaps it was since he still had plenty of hair on his head compared to the balder heads of most representatives from other countries. His beige hair had been slicked back and smoothed down, and he wore his favourite Neapolitan suit. He seemed more like a womanizer protagonist from a foreign spy movie than a country's representative.

For a little while already now a young aide-ish man had kept coming to Kaminski many times and whispering to him. One could see that kind of scene with many country's representatives.

The Federation was a big country. Even though Kaminski himself had a perfect kind of Slavic look to him, his aide had black hair and looked like he came from the east.

He was known for being a zealous devotee of the Greek Orthodox Church, and he would always make sure to worship ahead of important decisions. It seemed he had gone to a church in Kanda today as well in the morning, accompanied by a large number of guards.

Kaminski looked over at him. Had he felt the gaze? Junjirou averted his gaze, flustered.

During a discussion gathering which had been held in another room just a little bit earlier,　Junjirou had purposefully kept a distance from Kaminski. Working together as much with America as possible, Japan had appealed to each country to keep the disarmament going.

Kaminski didn't seem to be feeling any sort of discomfort in particular, judging from his appearance. But the European powers and the Asian union, who were paying attention as to in which direction the summit was heading, were surprised at seeing Japan's blatant actions.

--- As expected, Japan is just like America, huh?

--- Japan is like a child that can't grow independent from its parents, no matter how much time passes, huh.

It'd be a lie to say that Junjirou didn't feel that kind of scornful laughter hanging in the air. But he didn't really want to have to carry out these actions either.

(Is this really okay, Kurusu? If something were to happen to Yoshiya since we provoked the North like this...)

Junjirou once again motionlessly stared at the writing on the coaster as a drop of water fell down on it and spread.

He furiously rushed over to the toilet during the break period, since he had been drinking too much water.

At that moment a single man called out to him. It was Kurusu. At first Junjirou wondered how he had gotten into the summit venue, but then he realised that there wouldn't be a single place he couldn't enter as the vice-chief, no matter how strict the security was.

"Please provoke the North. So we can get even the slightest scrap of information that we can use to figure out the whereabouts of your son."

He said he'd later use some sort of way to get in touch with that intelligence officer from the North, Ginzburg.

Junjirou had seen the light in Kurusu's words, which made Yoshiya's release gradually seem closer and closer. He wanted to do as Kurusu said, believing in that he'd recover Yoshiya from that intelligence officer.

But since then he hadn't received any significant report on his son's whereabouts from Kurusu.

(If everything keeps going on like this, Yoshiya might not return alive...)

The head of each country was receiving information on a liquid crystal panel they had at hand, but for Junjirou it was completely blank right now, without any report or information.

Generally speaking, something felt off about this kidnapping incident.

Kidnapping the son of a country's Prime Minister and urging him to change his vote during the summit at the threat of said son's life--- Wouldn't making such a big deal out of it only cause trouble later on? He couldn't help but think so.

If Junjirou would succumb to the threat of the North even just for a moment, the disarmament would still be carried out according to the outline prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and his own doctrine).

What would the North do then? Would they kill Yoshiya? But there were a lot of other problems besides whether they would kill Yoshiya or cause him harm. The territorial disputes between Japan and the North were piling up, including the issue of the Northern Territories.

It didn't seem likely at all that Kaminski, even if he had professional information, would cause big problems with Japan and stir up the unrest voluntarily.

(That's right. Something like a reverse Namamugi Incident*...)

On the other hand, if Junjirou gave in to the pressure from the North here for the sake of his son and changed their American-like attitude until now completely, Japan would just cheat itself and cause a fiery anger.

What should he do? How could he tell what the right answer was?

He didn't know.

(Even if the North and China oppose the disarmament, it'd still be fine as long as the overwhelming majority expressed their desire to continue it. In that case the North would read the situation and realise that it'd be bad from a diplomatic point of view to speak out against disarmament here...)

If so, then--- If the North doesn't oppose the disarmament, it won't be necessary for Japan to make any important and rigorous decisions. Yoshiya wouldn't have any value to them anymore, and he would quickly be released.

Considering the fact that Junjirou didn't have much faith in Kurusu's search, he could only hope that the summit's mood would flow towards approval of the disarmament.

(Please let it end up that way one way or another, even though I have no idea how it'll end up playing out.)

Junjirou, who usually never missed a visit to a shrine, hadn't done just that this time, but had also started praying to just about every single god he could think of for the summit's success.

But perhaps being everybody's friend like that wasn't a good thing to do, since the situation started to head in an unexpected direction.

— — — — — — — — —
It started the moment the microphone was handed over to Kaminski, the secretary general of the Russian Federation.

"--- At the moment our country's disarmament is at about 98% compared to ten years ago. We've mainly shrunk the navy, many infantry regiments have been disbanded and they are instead currently serving as local government employees in order to protect the local order."

As Kaminski spoke of further details, he got successive praise from all the northern European countries, which were close to Russia, for steadily carrying out the disarmament and protecting the treaty by disbanding the huge military forces Russia had been so proud of.

Junjirou watched unpleasantly as Kaminski was receiving compliments.

What was that disarmament rate of 98% supposed to be about? Most of the Federation Army had just been renamed to the border guard. Even their insignia hadn't changed much as they just kept using it. They were using very blatant tricks compared to Japan, which had completely disbanded the Ministry of Defense.

Of course there was also a voice that didn't agree with them on the matter. It was America. But even though they were critical towards the North, they still seemed to appreciate that the North was keeping track of the numbers, and America didn't touch on the fact that the army was still remaining, just as guards.

Junjirou thought that America must have respected the North's geographical problems.

Although they were both big countries that were surrounded by the sea on three sides, America only had one country to deal with on their southern side. Compared to that, the North had many internal problems between ethnic groups and many border skirmishes. Due to that the North couldn't help but leave the army as border guards, which America seemed to understand, and so America decided to urge for a new form of disarmament.

Due to this unexpected concession from America, the summit's mood turned towards resigning the disarmament.

(Good, good.)

Junjirou was applauding on the inside. There had to be some reason why the North, who was the leader of the anti-disarmament group of countries, suddenly withdrew their opinion like this. But there was no way to find out why that was by now. Did they come to some sort of agreement with America? Did some country end up mediating between them? --- In any case, it was certain that the mood in this place suddenly sharply inclined towards one conclusion.

Now it had come to this, the North would also have less of a reason to keep Yoshiya abducted as well. There was a big chance that he would be released unharmed if the disarmament would end up going through as-is.

Junjirou suddenly felt thirsty as that relief set in, and drank from his lukewarm mineral water.

At that moment he found out that something was sticking to the bottom of the clear glass.

At first he thought it was paper. But that was wrong. It was thinner and more flexible than paper. A slight pinkish white--- petal.

(Sakura...)

It was a cherry blossom petal, without a doubt.

He didn't know why it was there. But it was for sure that someone had purposefully put it between the glass and the coaster to send a message to Junjirou.

At first he suspected his aide, but that was hard to imagine. Besides, it was so small and thin that no one would notice it was stuck to the bottom of the glass while serving it.

Perhaps someone among the hotel staff who had prepared the glasses had done it. Or someone had asked for it.

(Who in the world would...)

Sakura.. He remembered hearing about it before. It was a special intelligence agency that Kurusu had made ten years ago during the chaos of the disarmament.

Criminals, outcasts of society, children, prostitutes, sick people... They trained talented people regardless of birthplace or educational background and made them spies as a section of the National Public Safety Commission.　But those Sakura were treated as top secret even within the government, and it wasn't just since they were being trained as spies.

It was since all of the people who were part of that group were "dead."

Since they were dead people, they had a special right to kill. They couldn't exist in this world since they were dead, so it wouldn't matter what they did. Anything would be fine. So they were an assassination squad.

Kurusu had said that he'd use one of the students at Maru School who were training to be Sakura to get in touch with Ginzburg. Did this petal have something to do with that?

If so, who was the one who sent it to him?

Junjirou felt a gaze upon him as if he was being struck across the cheek. He instinctively raised his face and saw it.

"!"

Kaminski, who was sitting on the opposite end of the room, was motionlessly watching him.

Their gazes met for a moment. But while he looked at him in that moment, Junjirou noticed that he was pointing towards his coaster with his index finger.

He gasped with dread.

(This is the North's---!)

It was a message from Kaminski after all.　... So that meant the North knows very well just how desperate he was to get Yoshiya back, and was trying to enforce something using that.

(No way, was the North joining sides with America just a bluff? Was their plan to turn around in the end and oppose the disarmament during the vote at the end?)

If that was the case, then no matter how peaceful the mood was right now, the determination of the anti-disarmament group was not budging in the slightest.

The lamp on top of the electronic pad on his desk blinked rapidly. A notification from the summit programme director was displayed, saying that Japan's turn was up next.

(What... What should I say...?)

Junjirou completely fell into a panic now. His thoughts were thrown out of order as the faces of the representatives and various head of states were going round and round inside of his head like a merry-go-round. The report he was holding in his hands was reduced to something that only soaked up his sweat.

But Japan's turn was drawing closer and closer by the minute, even as he was at a loss for words.

Indonesia's report was over. Although they spoke out that they couldn't approve of further lenghtening the disarmament as a honest country due to frequently occurring acts of extremist Islamic terrorism, they didn't seem completely opposed.

"Japan."

(--- It's here.)

As he tried to start with the greetings, his knees felt like they were going to crumble.

He was trembling. He was terrified.

No wonder. It was pitch black in front of his eyes, after all.

The gazes of the entire conference room were aimed at Japan's seat--- no, on Prime Minister Junjirou. But he didn't have the nerve to endure them, and he couldn't manage to regain his breath.

He wanted to run away.

The cherry blossom petal that had fallen down on the coaster looked like a person's smile.


( back to index. )

notes:
* the namamugi incident was an actual historical event, not something the messiah canon made up! you can read about it over here.