Chapter 26
Parking lot of Ogiya Inn, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka
May 13, 2013
6:23 P.M.
Ohta Ichigo
“And thus I regret to report that while with the help of the Special Skills Support Group we can bring back the critically wounded and permanently crippled back into action, suffer vastly decreased logistical problems, and mitigate the effect of magic to the mental health of our men and women, the ability to provide accurate forecasts of the future plans of the enemy were neutralized from the start because of the same ability by the Lighteater World Kingdom, the Syndicalista Skinchanger Republic, and the myriad mercenaries employed by the Lighteater World Kingdom. Sir,” Major Suzumoto reported to Defense Minister Onodera.
Minister Onodera, visible and audible to those of us inside the command tent thanks to a full length, free standing mirror from a local shop and several cellphones with flashlight apps on that Izanami and Ran cast magic on back during the afternoon, scowled in his business wear at what he heard. Beside him was someone I recognized from TV. The current Chief of Staff, Joint Staff General Shigeru Iwasaki, the person who would normally assume command of the Self Defense Forces provided a state of war was declared but was currently legally unable to what with the lack of said declaration, wasn’t happy either.
Behind them were what I assume must be the staff of the location that Minister Onodera and General Iwasaki were in earlier this day, softly talking into cellphones, either writing notes, consulting notes or exchanging notes at the same time. And in the far background, for some reason, were a couple of old Buddhist monks, ignoring everything happening around them in favor of meditating.
‘Oh that’s clever. No computers or radios at hand? Use cellphone and paper instead.’
“Major Suzumoto,” Minister Onodera started to ask. “Did your consultants tell you if countermeasures for enemy divination exist?”
Major Suzumoto coughed. And then delivered the information that had frustrated Colonel Kanda when he heard it.
“There are two…acts that I am reluctant to call a countermeasure, sir. One of which I was shown earlier by the goddess Izanami with the assistance of consultant Ikeda Ao.”
My daughter shyly and briefly waved her hand when her name was called, before half hiding her body behind me once again.
Minister Onodera sent a brief smile her way, while General Iwasaki replied with a single nod of his head towards her.
“And that way is?” Minister Onodera asked.
“Being intentionally obfuscate with one’s own divination, which I believe is the basis for the cultural depiction of prophecies all over the world as vague and extremely hard to interpret.”
Minister Onodera winced while General Iwasaki spoke up for the first time, in an incredulous manner.
“Am I to understand that from now on the standard for encrypted information related to the results of divination rituals will be based on the level of a supernatural genre movie aimed at a teenage audience?”
“Not only that sir, but the manner in which Izanami used her obfuscated prophecy was...as if she was boastfully giving the enemy a warning.”
“May I hear the full prophecy from Izanami?” Minister Onodera asked. “Your summary earlier was too brief.”
Major Suzumoto started to consult his notes, but before he could say Izanami’s prophecy my daughter interrupted him because of the orders that Major Suzumoto gave her during the afternoon.
“Major? Uhm, the Light…oh. The talking and walking plants and the changing skin color people are counting the willing and unwilling swords. Again.”
Everyone in the mirror looked at my daughter who, to her credit, stood beside me with no hint of her earlier shyness for some reason. At the same time I was fanning her with a folding fan that I asked Ran to make me during the afternoon.
“Minister Onodera, General Iwasaki, I will explain this. Earlier I requested Ao here to inform me the moment her powers tell her the Lighteaters or the Skinchangers in Japan start using divination again, and to see what they were targeting and why. And this day, if we include the one she had just talked about, the Lighteaters and Skinchangers had performed three divination rituals each since four in the afternoon, for a total of six rituals.”
“And they are counting…willing swords and unwilling swords? Is that a reference to the active and reserve members of the Self Defense Forces?” Minister Onodera asked.
His words provoked a reaction from General Iwasaki, as well as the stare of every Self Defense Forces member who heard him.
“Minister Onodera, I must protest your equating of the word unwilling with the JSDF Reserves. The Self Defense Forces are an all volunteer force. There is no such thing as unwilling among our ranks,” General Iwasaki complained.
Minister Onodera raised an eyebrow at the General, shrugged moments later and gave off an apology that seemed to be given for politeness’ sake.
General Iwasaki seemed to have accepted it, for he turned towards the mirror once more and asked Major Suzumoto what the willing and unwilling swords were.
“It is very uncertain, sir. I had asked the same question earlier, and Ao’s only answer was that they were all sources of death for the Lighteaters and Skinchangers in the present or the future, sir.”
“Is there any reason why another divination to learn more could not be attempted again at this very moment, Major?”
“Because I was still not finished with my earlier report, sir. Another divination session will be done after my report is finished, sir.”
“...hmm. See to it then, Major. Proceed with your report then.”
“Yes sir. Regarding the full prophecy from Izanami…message. “Woe be to the pitcher plants that talk. Woe be to the people of the colorful skins. And woe be to the paid, scavenging for riches and glory from an innocent world. ‘Death’ comes for one of you. ‘Death’ unexpected. ‘Death’ inescapable. ‘Death’ lured by authority. And to lure ‘Death’ you lowly supplicant must do one thing. To lure ‘Death,’ chant ‘The Last Stands are not Last Stands.’” Over.”
Just like Colonel Kanda and his staff from the 13th Infantry Regiment earlier this day, Minister Onodera, General Iwasaki and the staff at the other side of the mirror were disturbed by being told the Self Defense Forces undergo a Last Stand to encourage a miracle from ‘Death.’
“As you have heard just now, the prophecy sounded like it was a warning delivered to the face of someone in the same room. That aspect ties into the second act that I hesitate to call a countermeasure to enemy divination.”
“Which is?”
“Information overload via a non-hierarchical, non-communicating cellular system composed of single individuals or family based groups, which is what the present supernatural community of the world is currently conducting against the Lighteaters and Skinchangers.”
The very unimpressed stares that Minister Onodera and General Iwasaki sent our way was exactly the same as the ones Colonel Kanda and his staff gave earlier. Something that I both agree and disagree with.
On one hand, not only was there no army in the world that would agree to devolve their structure into complete anarchy to continue resistance, I doubt even any terrorist organization in the world would agree to the same arrangement that apparently the supernatural world was currently operating under.
On the other hand, a simple recollection that the supernatural community is indistinguishable from religion and mythology makes the act of separating people and groups with indescribable grudges against each other as early and as permanent as possible the only logical one to make.
“We, of course, will not be doing any such thing,” General Iwasaki stated.
“Yes sir,” Major Suzumoto replied.
“Are there any more information we should know about?” Minister Onodera asked.
“...all I have left is a suggestion that further cooperation between the remaining Self Defense Forces units and the supernatural groups in their locales should be pursued.”
“That’s not going to happen if we, the collective Japanese Government, are not being ignored and turned into collateral casualties by said supernatural groups pursuing their own private wars all over Japan.”
‘Ouch. That’s a damning statement.’
“There are other incidents like what happened to Prime Minister Abe and Finance Minister Taro, sir?”
“...we have received reports from civilians attempting to evacuate from the cities into the countryside being dissuaded from doing so by information from incoming evacuees from the rural areas of Japan.”
“What’s happening in the rest of Japan’s rural countryside, sir?”
“That is information you don’t need to bother with. Understand?”
“Yes sir. Sir, may I propose the option of having the Special Skills Support Group contact any such supernatural groups near our remaining units locations?”
“And what precisely will you ask them to do once contact is made?” Minister Onodera asked.
“I will strongly request that they cooperate and coordinate with the Self Defense Forces, sir.”
“The reason no one is ‘cooperating and coordinating’ with the Self Defense Forces is because normal humans can’t survive a fight where members of the supernatural community express the full might of their power,” a male voice boomed out of nowhere from the place Minister Onodera and General Iwasaki were at.
In an instant Minister Onodera was tackled and buried under the bodies of four burly Self Defense Forces personnel while every other Self Defense Forces personnel else in that place, including General Iwasaki, had pistols and assault rifles waving around in the air and looking for the speaker.
As for the monks, they stopped meditating and placidly looked around the room.
On our side, Colonel Kanda screamed at someone to go up the hill next to us and get Izanami, who was at that moment attending to the crippled Self Defense Forces members inside the Higashiguchi Fujisengen Shrine.
“Who is that! Show yourself!” General Iwasaki shouted in anger.
“I am the founder of the sect that built the temple you are currently in,” the mysterious voice replied.
The reply stilled everyone in their location, and everyone here in the command tent.
“...Buddha?” Minister Onodera asked from underneath the pile of bodies.
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Street in front of the Subashiri Police Koban, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka
May 13, 2013
6:26 P.M.
Ikeda Kurumi
“What is this?” I asked Krauncha as I stared at the two books that the Indian had just handed to me, illuminated by the light of fifty candles stuck in the middle of upright earthenware bowls that Mama had asked Izanami to create earlier, and had set all over both sidewalks of the street in front of the police koban.
They were paperback books, each about as thick as one of my school textbooks and measuring...20 by maybe 18 cm in size. And the title of the one on top, written in English was…Athenaze, an introduction to ancient Greek, Book I.
“A textbook to allow you to learn how to make the Yavanas’ magical ring work.”
I sighed as yet another unreasonable expectation was suddenly dropped onto my feet.
“I don’t have time to learn another language, you know?” I complained at Krauncha. “I still have to learn Arnis from Mama, right Mama?”
Mama, who stood beside me while holding two 20 cm. wooden sticks made out of biwa, another gift from Izanami, nodded while inquisitively gazing at the books in my hands.
“Oh, you’ll have time. We’ll do it in your dreams.”
‘Come again?’
“I’m going to pretend you are only making a joke - “
The Indian man suddenly interrupted me with a laugh.
“You do realize you can’t make that thing work if you can’t talk Yavana, right? And I can’t be there to do the talking for you all the time, for I do have other things to help with! So, I think you have to learn, or die. Or let other people die.”
A few seconds passed as I silently glared at the Indian man, who stared back at me with the face of someone who was confident they were in the right.
‘...and he is right.’
“Alright. I’ll see you when I’m sleeping.”
‘Damn it, it sounds so horrible to my ears.’
“See you later!” Krauncha said in a sing song as he ran away, back towards the headquarters of the Self Defense Forces in the area, where my fiance and daughter are also currently at.
“Kurumi, you realize his wording makes you sound like you are having an affair, right?” Mother asked in an understandably irked tone.
“Yes, Mother. I’ll tell Ichigo the bad news later, when he and Ao gets here.”
“Well. In the meantime, I’m going to give you a crash course in Arnis,” Mama said as she gave me one of the sticks she had with her.
As I took hold of it, Mama started to give me a lecture.
“Now there are several ways to hold an arnis stick, which in Filipino we call baston. There is holding the baston at its bottom most edge or hawak dulo, holding it with your last finger one inch from the bottom most edge or hawak…never mind. The Filipino term is several words long for this and the next one. Holding it with your last finger one closed fist away from the bottom most edge, center hold or hawak gitna where you hold it in the center and the reverse hold or hawak pabaligtad where you hold it at the top most edge of the baston.”
Every time Mama introduced a new way of holding the baston, she accordingly shifted the way she was holding her baston so I could visualize it.
“I…the reverse hold is really a thing, Mama? I thought its only something from anime, to make the characters look cool,” I asked.
Mother herself sent a question Mama’s way.
“I know the reverse hold is a valid knife fighting technique. My father taught me himself how to do it.”
‘Wait, what?’
“But are you claiming the reverse hold is valid for…stick fighting?”
“The reverse hold is a valid tactic, depending on the situation and what you are holding. But only for experts, Yuki. Kurumi, you’re a beginner, so I don’t want to see you try something just because it looks cool. Now experiment by swinging the stick in midair to see which one you are most comfortable with. And be careful, don’t let it go out of your hand mid-swing or the stick will fly out and hit someone.”
I followed Mama’s words and made a few practice swings using the normal sounding holds that Mama told me, in line with her words about me being a beginner.
After a few swings, I found that I was most comfortable with the hawak dulo. And that was what I told Mama.
“Ah. Alright, then from now on you hold your weapons like that, ok anak? Now let’s start with the strikes.”
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Parking lot of Ogiya Inn, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka
May 13, 2013
6:26 P.M.
Ohta Ichigo
“I am honored that you would compare me to the Buddha. However, I am merely a bosatsu who chose to help others achieve enlightenment. You may know me as Jiun Myoi, founder of the Kokutai-ji School of the Rinkai Sect,” the mysterious voice from the other side of the mirror said, in an extremely humble tone that sought to defuse the tension in the air.
It was successful on the part of the Self Defense Forces and Minister Onodera. But the voice had a different effect on the monks present. They looked…giddy as they quietly and unobtrusively went out of the room shown in the mirror.
“Well…alright. Jiun Myoi, you said?” Minister Onodera said as he was dazedly helped onto his feet by the Self Defense Forces personnel who tackled him. “What proof do you have that what you said is accurate?”
“Proof? Was it not a few hours ago when you and all the soldiers you were with were so easily taken away from your fortified den and transported to this humble temple in Etchu Province without your consent? Was that not a sign of how helpless ordinary mortals are on their lonesome in the face of the supernatural?”
The faces of a lot of people, myself included, twisted in dissatisfaction at what this bosatsu had just said to us.
“Pardon me honorable bosatsu, but us ordinary mortals held our own here at Mt. Fuji,” Major Suzumoto countered in an incensed manner.
“And was it done solely through your efforts?” Jiun Myoi patiently asked.
I immediately got the point, as did Major Suzumoto, Colonel Kanda and most of the officers present.
“No. It was done in cooperation with members of the supernatural community.”
“And if the members of the supernatural community weren’t present, what would have happened to your soldiers at Mount Fuji?”
‘We all die.’
“They would have all died in the end, after fighting heroically,” Colonel Kanda quickly said. “However, honorable bosatsu, what you seem to be suggesting is that we leave all the fighting to the supernatural community.”
“The same supernatural community that seems to be unable to limit collateral damage in any fight they are in,” General Iwasaki added from the room on the other side of the mirror. “Even up to this moment, we are receiving reports of city and town districts all over Japan destroyed with no known survivors. And the only explanation the rescue personnel on the site could give was that the fighting was too fast for anyone to even start evacuating. How can you suggest leaving all the fighting to these careless people?”
“Excuse me, Mr. General? Uhm, what is the situation?” Izanami’s voice suddenly cut in from behind me and Ao.
As I looked at her, she slowly strode into the tent with a curious look on her face, unhampered by anyone because they made way for her, and went up to the front of the mirror.
“Ah. I greet you, honorable gongen,” Jiun Myoi said in a welcoming tone, which made Izanami wince for some reason.
“And I greet you too, honorable bosatsu. I presume you were the cause of the alarm?”
“Indeed. I was just giving these honorable bureaucrats and soldiers enlightenment as to why mortals should leave the fighting to the gongen and the devas and instead concentrate on hiding the innocent from the battles.”
“Haven’t I just said earlier that there were many reports of entire town and city districts being completely destroyed without any chance of even starting an evacuation?” Chief of Staff General Iwasaki asked.
“Regrettable as this may sound, no matter how many innocents die they should be ignored in favor of finding safe havens for those still living.”
“For a bosatsu, you sure don’t sound like you care for the innocent,” Minister Onodera said after a few moments of outraged silence coming from…practically every present member of the Self Defense Forces.
“Minister Onodera, I know he sounds like a heartless person but there is a reason he and a significant part of the supernatural community would sound like that,” Izanami immediately cut in.
“And that reason is?” Minister Onodera asked, glaring at Izanami through the mirror.
“Well…because being dead isn’t actually a big deal from our point of view?”
Everyone stared at Izanami for the words she uttered. Including my daughter, and for some reason I can’t explain I also knew the bosatsu Juin Myoi was also doing the same thing.
“Well…uh, part of my job description is providing a place for the dead who believed in me, and that place is…well it is paradise. I give them a land with no end where the game never runs out, where they could be with their loved ones for eternity. For the Buddhists…”
“The aim of the bukkyo is the cessation of all afflictions, cessation of all actions, cessation of rebirths and suffering that are a consequence of afflictions and actions.. Yes, innocents died. They perished without attaining nirvana. They will once again suffer after they reincarnate. That is what is undesirable for us Buddhists.”
“Also, please consider that the dead being physically and spiritually separated from the living by death is just like someone being in the next prefecture for those of us who deal with afterlives with no concept of reincarnation. Could you not think of it as…looking for a mobile phone subscription to talk with say, your dead mother and father…oh wait. If they are Japanese Buddhists they will have already reincarnated. Uh…want to meet their reincarnations? I’m sorry, they will not remember you. That is part of the cycle itself.”
Izanami trailed off as we continued staring at her.
“Honorable gongen, I fear your explanation of our viewpoints was not a good one,” the bosatsu commented.
“It was terrible, but enlightening,” Minister Onodera agreed….and then a moment later he snapped.
“You gods and buddhas might have no problems with people being dead, but we do! We need living people to run society!”
“You would get more living people by starting the evacuations now,” Juin Myoi replied.
“Evacuations from where to where?! All these reports I’m getting are showing no clear frontlines to steer away from! No clear safe places to evacuate to! In Kochi prefecture, the northern half of the occupied prefectural capital of Kochi, the part beside the mountains, is currently in ruins and lifeless because of a still continuing battle in the mountains. But in Hiroshima prefecture, the place that ended up being ruined by fighting is the city of Miyoshi! A secluded city in the mountains that isn’t next to Hiroshima city, isn’t occupied by any Skinchangers or Lighteaters and thus should have been a safe place for refugees!”
“What we are seeing is clearly the disadvantage of the chosen strategy by the supernatural community,” Chief of Staff General Iwasaki added. “A deliberately uncoordinated guerilla war by people with the abilities of weapons of mass destruction only causes chaos and suffering for civilians.”
“It was a decision that was taken only because of the constraints the supernatural community of this world was under.”
“Are you referring to the treaty that the Indian national named Krauncha told us was locally called the Chains of 1171? Very well, I as the present representative of the National Government of Japan, have additional questions about this treaty that Japan has most certainly never signed or agreed to. Why are the alien nations who signed the Chains of 1171 currently so silent, when someone is trying to conquer the sole source of cheaply trained and expendable weapons of mass destruction in the Known Areas?” Minister Onodera asked.
“The answer to that particular question is…complicated. Honorable gongen, you haven’t answered that question before?” Juin Myoi asked Izanami.
“I am tired of grieving over my husband and my sons. Learning information about the people who slayed them would just make the grief return, so I didn’t simply didn’t bother to do so,” Izanami huffed. “I know there is a treaty called the Chains of 1171. I know one of the terms prohibits the gods and supernatural beings of Earth from interfering with the Outsiders who do business here on Earth, another is that no being from Earth is allowed permission to travel into Known Space. And that’s all I know.”
‘I sympathize with your feelings, but that was still unhelpful of you Izanami.’
“Ah. Very well, I shall answer in her place then. Of the seven hundred eighty seven Known Space polities who signed the Chains of 1171, only three hundred fifty six remain due to the decadence that afflicted them thanks to the terms of the treaty. That same decadence has rendered them weak, and we all know what the weak do when confronted by the mighty.”
“Well if they are so weak, then why are you people even following the terms?” Minister Onodera growled.
“For fear of making all these decadent weaklings help the Lighteaters and Skinchangers in conquering and pacifying the world, in exchange for human breeding herds.”
‘Breeding herds? What?’
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Street in front of the Subashiri Police Koban, Subashiri, Oyama, Sunto District, Shizuoka
May 13, 2013
6:28 P.M.
Ikeda Kurumi
“Bigay Pugay!” Mama yelled.
I immediately stood straight, feet next to each other, my dominant left hand holding the baston upright placed flat on the right part of my chest, and then gave a slight bow to show respect to the opponent or training partner.
In front of me, Mama also did the same thing, except she was right handed.
After the bow, Mama started to attack me. Slowly, while announcing what block I am supposed to be performing.
“Sangga Pakanan 1!” She shouted while swinging her baston at the right side of my head. I blocked it, my left hand holding my baston straight upwards with my right wrist giving support at the upper end of the stick.
Mama’s baston tapped mine with a loud click.
“Good! Sangga Pakanan 2!” She shouted while swinging at the same place again.
This time I switched the position of the baston. The hand holding the baston was now held diagonally downwards by my left hand placed in position beside my right temple, with my right wrist still supporting it.
“Good! Sangga Pakanan 3!”
This time Mama aimed at my right leg. The block I performed this time was to stretch my baston downwards right, protecting my right leg.
“Good! Sangga Pakaliwa 1!” She shouted while swinging at the left side of my head.
This time I held my baston straight upwards by my left side, with support from my right wrist at the upper part.
“Good! Sangga Pakaliwa 2!”
I moved the baston…and got a tap on my left wrist.
“Wrong! Don’t move and look at what you did wrong!”
I looked to my left and saw what happened.
What Mama called a Sangga Pakaliwa 2 was supposed to end with me blocking the baston by holding my baston diagonally downwards with my left hand. What I did instead ended with the baston sticking straight leftwards.
“Can you explain what you did wrong?” Mama asked me.
“I wasn’t pointing the stick diagonally downwards?”
“Yes. And since you are using a hawak dulo, you are obliged to raise your hand a little higher than the shoulder to get the baston into proper position. Now, Sangga Pakaliwa 3!”
Mama slowly swung at my left leg, which I blocked with my baston stretched downwards left.
“Good! Sangga Pataas 1!” Mama said while swinging downwards at my head.
I blocked it with my baston stretched rightwards over my head.
“Good! Sangga Pataas 2!” Mama said while repeating the same action.
This time I blocked by having the baston stretches leftwards over my head.
“Sangga Pababa!” Mama said while swinging upwards towards my crotch.
I blocked it with the baston pointed rightwards by the level of my knees.
“Good! Let’s practice Sangga Pakaliwa 2 until you can do it right! 1, 2, 3 Sangga!”
‘Ok. Diagonal downward left. Diagonal downward left.’
She waited until my baston was in the proper blocking position before suddenly delivering what I could only describe was a full power blow at the baston that made my hand twinge.
I lowered my left hand to start shaking the pain away when Mama suddenly yelled ‘Sangga’ once more.
I frantically had my baston in blocking position to receive another full powered strike.
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“Ok, good!” Mama said minutes later, looking satisfied with how quickly and properly I could perform a Sangga Pakaliwa 2 by this time.
At that very moment I had placed the baston on the ground by my feet while shaking my left hand in circular motions while holding my left wrist with my right hand.
“I’ll give you ten minutes rest! Then we are doing blocking drills! This time with randomized strikes!”
I almost let out a groan. Almost. Because I knew what I was doing this for.
‘For Ao and Ichigo.’