Chapter 24

Subashiri Police Koban, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 13, 2013

12:51 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

Major Suzumoto finally ended the long moment of silence brought on by Ran’s comment about the deceased Prime Minister Abe with an angry complaint that made me worry about Ao and feel my prayer for peace was a waste of time.

"What use does the Self Defense Forces have for the Special Skills Support Group if the Prime Minister died under the watch of this group not past one minute into its activation?"

"Our use is to mitigate the damage that magical warfare can do to normal humans," Ran suddenly replied while standing out of her chair, taking a sheet of paper from the two stacks of paper still in the middle of the table before us, and using the brush and inkstone she used earlier to write down her contract.

Within moments, she had finished writing a lengthy message in hiragana in the fastest feat of calligraphy I had ever seen.

After she finished writing that message she dried the ink by blowing on it three times, folded the whole thing up into a paper plane, and then went to the doorway of the Koban while carrying the paper plane in her upturned palms.

"I, Ran of the Yamada of Gifu, will the air to bring this paper plane to Izanami-sama on the top of Mt. Fuji as fast as possible!"

She blew at the paper plane –

Wind suddenly blew through the room –

– and an instant later the paper plane flew upwards and out of our view.

– spattering the walls of the room where the entrance way was placed with ink and scattering blank papers all over the Koban.

"There. Izanami should be here in a minute or so," Ran, the current ray of hope for my family, said as she turned around and walked back towards her seat.

“And what did you ask her to do here?” Major Suzumoto asked.

“First, to teach Ao and us how to properly use Ao’s seer ability. Izanami is one of the oldest gods of Japan, she most assuredly would have practical experience with seers and oracles.”

‘Thank you Ran.’

“Second," Ran said as she sat back down. "I asked her to set up a line of communication between the JSDF and Konohanasakuya-hime so the next time the aliens come here Konohanasakuya-hime and the JSDF can coordinate with one another.”

“Is there a third reason?” Major Suzumoto asked Ran with a scowl, probably unhappy at the thought of dealing with the person who had killed so many of his fellow comrades by accident a few days ago.

“...so you can talk her into joining the Special Skills Support Group and giving the JSDF and the Japanese Government access to the knowledge she possesses?”

Major Suzumoto stared at Ran for several moments before he huffed. He turned back to Private Akiyama and told him to reestablish a connection with Defense Minister Onodera. After doing that, he turned back towards me, Ao and Ran.

"Alright, let's try to do it right this time. Ran, you mentioned proper usage of seer talents. What went wrong earlier? How did it lead to the Prime Minister’s death?"

“I’m not an expert, so all I can give you is general knowledge, ok Major?”

“Alright.”

“Normally, any problem with a given magical prediction was usually because the person asking for information asks the wrong question.”

“...and what did I ask that was the wrong question?”

“Well…if we go by tradition, everything you asked was wrong. You are only supposed to ask questions with you as the point of view, not the future of other people, not about actions being performed at the present and not about fact checking. All of those are supposedly nothing but wasting your time from asking the right questions.”

“And you didn’t tell me that earlier?!” Major Suzumoto suddenly screamed with a venomous glare sent Ran's way.

“Major Suzumoto, please calm down,” Mrs. Taro quickly intervened, at the same time as my daughter had flinched in surprise at Major Suzumoto’s scream, which was quickly followed by a pained whimper.

My only reaction to her whimper was to gently hug her tighter against my chest, so as to make her move less and because that was the only thing I could think of at the moment.

“People are dead because this kid didn’t warn me earlier! She doesn’t even look like she feels remorse about the deaths of multiple people!” The angry Major shouted at Mrs. Taro while pointing his finger at Ran, who had a blank expression on her face.

“Suzumoto, can you blame her later and start asking about the other Cabinet members?” Papa asked as he suddenly walked around us and the table to get the seat Major Suzumoto was using until a minute ago.

He then dragged the chair towards the Major and coaxed him to calm down.

It took a few moments of mutual staring before Major Suzumoto sat down. Once seated he briefly sent Ran a glare before turning his eyes towards me and Ao.

At the same time as he did this, I felt my boyfriend rub my back in a comforting manner. And Papa, he stood beside Major Suzumoto, with his left hand gently laid on his former classmate’s right shoulder.

“Alright. Let’s do this better. What news am I going to receive about Finance Minister Aso Taro and when will I receive it?”

A few seconds passed before Ao timidly replied to his question..

“You will receive news of Finance Minister Aso Taro's death in Hokkaido tomorrow from Defense Minister Onodera.”

Major Suzumoto hissed upon hearing that news.

“What did he die of? And when did he die?”

“He and his guards died as collateral damage at Mt. Eniwa, when the fight between the magical girl living in Tomakomai and all the Korjos that were sent to capture her made Mt. Eniwa erupt and flood his bunker with lava. And it happened…last night.”

Major Suzumoto's right eye started twitching then, which...started to concern me. Because he could have another angry outburst, but this time it is directed at my daughter.

"Alright. What news will I receive about Chief Cabinet Secretary Suga Yoshihide, Justice Minister Tanigaki Sadakazu, Minister of State for Economic and Fiscal Policy Amari Akira and Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara? When will I receive it?"

"...do you promise not to shout at me?"Ao asked in a very scared tone.

I instantly readied myself for whatever Major Suzumoto's next action will be, at the same time as Papa visibly stiffened up while he was looking down at Major Suzumoto.

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Subashiri Police Koban, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 13, 2013

12:52 P.M.

Ohta Ichigo

I know that Major Suzumoto was currently feeling desperate to make up for the failure to warn the government ministers in the chain of succession about the danger to their lives.

I know that he was worried more people would lose their lives if he doesn’t get needed intelligence now.

I know…but it's hard to sympathize when my daughter was looking terrified of him because of a simple, unanswered question.

For my daughter's sake I decided then and there to talk with Major Suzumoto about that...and promptly ran headfirst into the problem of how to talk with the visibly distressed man whose shoulder Kentaro was holding on to with a wary eye.

As I was thinking of how to start a conversation with Major Suzumoto Dad suddenly started to slowly stand up from his seat, which in turn prompted Mom and me to come to Dad’s side and help him stand up.

“Dad? What are you going to do?” I asked him.

“Leadership...conchling. Son…make…radio…man...stay away…until...talk is...over.”

'Conchling must be counseling. Ouch this is going to suck for Major Suzumoto. Better go back to sitting beside Kurumi and Ao after I tell Private Akiyama to move away.'

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Around twenty or so seconds later Me, Dad and Mom stood in front of Major Suzumoto, who was covering his face with his hands while Kentaro stood behind him. And behind those two was Private Akiyama, who still hadn't stopped fiddling with the radio set and talking into it.

I did just as Dad asked me to do earlier. I went to Private Akiyama and told him that Dad was going to have a private talk with Major Suzumoto so he must move away from the two of them, while Mom went to Kentaro to do the same.

While Kentaro agreed and walked away while giving Suzumoto uneasy glances, Private Akiyama...

"Unless it is the Major himself giving the order, I'm not moving from here kid. I'm not taking orders from anyone not in the chain of command," he said before going back to fiddling with the radio and speaking into it.

A hand suddenly went past my head and clamped onto Private Akiyama's shoulder, followed by my Dad's head.

Before Private Akiyama had an opportunity to overreact, Dad started whispering something into the radio operator's ear. Moments later he shakily stood away with Mom's help, leaving behind a nervous looking Private Akiyama staring at where Major Suzumoto was sitting.

He then started moving the JPRC F-70 away from the two, by his own volition.

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Subashiri Police Koban, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka

May 13, 2013

1:03 P.M.

Ikeda Kurumi

"I'm coming in!" I heard Izanami's voice come from the door way.

She walked in, to my surprise dressed in a very different version of her Onogoro attire.

Where in Onogoro and as of yesterday the knee length, loose fitting tunic was completely red now it was as white as the ice cap on the top of Mt. Fuji. Her belt was now a multicolored rope instead of the plain red rope back in Onogoro. And the big red rings she squeezed her earlobes through that served as her earrings were now circles made of jade, either imitation of genuine.

'Ok. After all this is over I'm asking her about her Onogoro costume. It's so interesting in non-red colors that I want to try it myself.'

Izanami stopped after a step or two after seeing what everyone in the room was doing.

Mrs. Taro had been stooping over Ran’s shoulder and whispering something to her ever since Major Suzumoto shouted at her earlier, to seemingly no effect. Ran had been looking nowhere but down at her hands, placed on the table in front of her, with a sullen look on her face.

I couldn’t twist around in my seat to look behind me, but I know that Mama and Papa were behind me, and talking with Mother, who Father seemed to have politely requested to move away earlier, about something before Izanami came into the room.

On my knee was my daughter, and softly answering Ichigo’s questions with closed eyes until Izanami announced herself, and beside me was my boyfriend Ichigo, who from the time he walked away from Father and Major Suzumoto until now was writing down Ao’s answers to the questions he asked on several sheets of paper he rescued from the floor using the writing set that Ran had provided to us earlier.

Father and Major Suzumoto had spent all this time just talking with each other, and Izanami's arrival only merited a brief glance from the two before they went back to talking. And in the corner of the room nearest to the doorway, and quite far away from Father and the Major, was the radioman. All this time he was still continuing trying to contact Defense Minister Onodera.

"Uh...Major Suzumoto!" Izanami said as she reached into the folds of her tunic.

Father and Major Suzumoto stopped talking and looked up at her in response to that.

"So uh...this is how you can talk to my daughter in law!"

Izanami took out a...

"You upgraded?" Ichigo said beside me with a puzzled tone at what he was seeing.

In her hands was a Sharp PANTONE 5, the mobile phone in the commercials last year that was shot in Rome where the actress was recreating scenes from the movie 'Roman Holiday,' and had an inbuilt radiation detector.

"Yes,” Izanami replied. “When I went back to Nu Island and told my Kannushi's family about my day, the Kannushi's daughter stood up and said she would not let anyone look down on her shrine's patron goddess as a...'super country hick' were the words she used."

I winced at the words that Izanami said because...well...there was an element of that thought in my mind at the time Izanami showed off her Nokia 3310. And beside me, Ran was too deep in her own thoughts to react.

"So she quickly asked me to create a lot of gemstones and gold nuggets to sell to a jeweler she knows in Minamiawaji. After that we went to Softbank Minamiawaji and she helped me register several plans with Softbank using the money from the jeweler."

“So are you saying you gave Konohanasakuya-hime one of the Softbank cellphones registered to you?” Major Suzumoto asked in a tone that was slightly more positive than he was during his breakdown several minutes ago, as he looked past Father to get in eye contact with Izanami.

“Yes I did, earlier this day.”

“Alright. Does she know how to operate a cell phone? Or how to maintain one?”

“I taught her how to operate one earlier this day. As for maintaining it, I told her everything Minako told me about maintaining a cellphone. Except for the battery, we can keep it fully charged forever with magic."

'How many yen will we save if we use magic for our electrical supply needs?'

"Alright, give me her number," Major Suzumoto replied while he wearily took out his own cell phone, an iPhone, from his pocket...and then glared at the black screen briefly before looking at Izanami with a sheepish look on his face.

"I'm sorry. My charger is most probably melted back at Camp Fuji so I haven't been able to charge my cell phone. Can you charge up the battery and give it that forever fully charged gimmick?"

Izanami quickly pocketed her PANTONE 5 and in a few strides, was beside Major Suzumoto and taking the cell phone off his hands.

She held it to her chest and whispered something something with closed eyes. After her brief prayer she looked at the buttons on the iPhone’s side, and pressed what she thought must be the power button.

After seeing it turn on, she gave it back to Major Suzumoto with a smile.

“There. Forever fully charged!”

“Thank you,” Major Suzumoto replied while holding it close to him and typing in what I presume must be the iPhone’s password. After unlocking it he asked Izanami for Konohanasakuya-hime’s number and if she still had the same number or if she got a new one.

A few moments later, he finished typing the cell phone numbers that Izanami gave. He then thanked her and then asked her to start teaching my daughter how to properly be a seer. That done he turned back to Father and started talking again…no.

Father patted Major Suzumoto’s shoulder, said something more to him, and then turned around and started to shakily walk back towards us.

He was met halfway to us by Mother, who quickly started to support his body, and was trailed behind by Izanami, who was looking at him with a thoughtful look on her face. And behind them, Major Suzumoto was talking with a nervous looking Private Akiyama.

Within moments, Father was seated once again in his chair beside Ichigo.

“Father, Major Suzumoto didn’t say anything bad to you, did he?” I softly asked Father.

Father looked at me and slowly shook his head with an amused look on his face.

“Kurumi,” my boyfriend whispered to my ear. “Part of the duties of a Sergeant First Class was to serve as an advisor for his immediate superior officer. What he did just now was part of his job.”

“Does that mean Major Suzumoto is now calmed down? Enough to calmly accept the list of questions and answers you wrote down?” I asked, while idly noting that Izanami had placed herself at the side of the table to my right, still looking at Father with that thoughtful gaze.

A noise from the other end of the room made look in that direction, to see Major Suzumoto carrying his chair back to the other end of the table, no longer distraught but looking dejected.

“Alright. Mrs Izanami?” Major Suzumoto asked after he had seated himself back where he was minutes ago.

“Yes, Major?”

“Private Akiyama here wanted to ask you to perform that battery charge magic for all the battery powered electronic devices we are using, like our radios. We were unable to recharge any of them due to a lack of electricity here in Oyama thanks to the infrastructural damage of the battle two days ago. How many more times can you do that particular magic?”

“I have no limits to how many battery powered devices I can enchant, but I can cast the magic to at most two different items at the same time. Do you want me to apply that magic to the radio now?”

“Please do it after we finish with Ao. How long would it take to teach Ao to be a proper seer?”

“What brought that topic on in the first place?” Izanami asked in a puzzled tone.

Major Suzumoto gave a brief summary of the failure to warn the Prime Minister, with emphasis on how the warning was too late because Ran didn't inform us on the proper procedures of being a seer.

After the summation was finished Izanami was left looking at the still silent, frowning and staring at her own hands inari with a puzzled expression.

"Ran?"

Ran didn't speak, so Mrs. Taro nudged her shoulder to bring Ran back to the present.

The sudden contact made Ran blink and turn towards Mrs. Taro, who pointed at Izanami while saying that Izanami had asked her a question.

With a yelp, Ran turned around and made an apology for ignoring the goddess' presence in the room.

"No, it's alright. It's alright. Now, I have the slightest feeling that you weren't finished saying everything when Major Suzumoto was angered by your words. Would you finish your words now?"

Ran bit her lips for a few seconds after Izanami said that, enough that Mrs. Taro had to act.

"Look dear. No one's going to yell at you now, alright? It's fine now. Talk," Mrs. Taro said to Ran in a comforting manner.

Ran finally made her answer in a...slightly indignant manner.

"If we go by the nineties, the only thing you did wrong was to be the second person who had access to a seer's help. Anyone who has earlier access to a seer's help will almost always win because they had the time advantage."

'Nineties? The decade? How did we get there?'

"...I am not interested in learning about how I fucked up according to what I assume must be schools of thought in supernatural society, I want the proper procedures for consulting a seer or oracle now," Major Suzumoto hissed from where he sat.

"If I may speak in her defense, Major Suzumoto? Dealing with schools of thought is an unavoidable part of supernatural life," Izanami spoke up. "One only has to look at the amount of religions and sects in the world."

At hearing the latter sentence, my intuition...started to ring, for lack of a better word to use. And it says Mama was about to say something about that.

I turned my head around and looked at Mama, to see Papa already dealing with the situation by putting his right hand over Mama's mouth and giving her a pleading look on his face.

Mama's only reaction was to give him an irritated look.

Seeing that an outburst was dealt with, I turned my head back towards the others.

"Ms. Izanami, I repeat I just want procedures for consulting with Ao as a seer."

"Well I can definitely help with that, although I really, really want Ran to give me assistance at the same time. She would be more familiar with modern magical practices than I am what with her being born in the last twenty years."

"I'm not the one who will decide that, its Ran who does. And if she does decide to help, hopefully she can commit to giving out information before people die," Major Suzumoto said in an extremely transparent and mocking passive aggressive manner.

"No fair!" Ran finally yelled out, in a very frustrated tone. "How am I at fault when I didn't see the attack on Prime Minister Abe coming! I didn't even know the enemy would use seers and oracles in this day and age!"

"You could have told me how to properly ask questions to Ao!"

"Because there is no point if you started to use seers and oracles after the other side did! As the one who didn't employ divination first, your job now is to perform damage control with the goal of forcing the side that employed divination first into a negotiated settlement! And historically that is done through the use of constant lopsided ambushes!"

As Major Suzumoto, Father and Private Akiyama over by the corner of the room stared at Ran Izanami asked her a request.

"Ran, if I may say something about your point of view in my capacity as a goddess of Japan?"

Ran instantly turned to Izanami and nodded meekly

"Schools of thought are just ways of interpreting a subject. Don't treat them like instruction manuals or cooking recipes that one must rigidly follow, but as...vague directions to a desired conclusion."

Leaving Ran with a poleaxed look on her face at hearing those words, Izanami turned towards Major Suzumoto and started to talk with a smile.

"Alright, let's start with the basics of how to ask and tell the future!"

"Pardon me, I need to educate someone before we start."