10. Chapter 9: The way back home

CHAPTER 9: THE WAY BACK HOME

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"We found the hostage safe and sound, and he told us the murderers are heading towards the Gate in Ginza!"

"So they managed to escape your watch, despite there being no blind spots to get out of the construction site?"

"We're as puzzled as you sir! The hostage told us he saw the murderers… Well, disappear under a cape?"

Gennosuke put down the radio for a while, thinking about what he just heard.

"Explain, I don't understand."

"I think the hostage will have an easier time explaining sir."

The radio remained silent for a second, before the voice of Hakino sounded in the room.

"Inspector Gennosuke?"

"Ah, professor Hakino! I'm glad you're doing fine! Now, what was that with that cape?"

"I can't really explain it mister Gennosuke… They asked me questions about our world for some time, then they bundled together and they disappeared from my sight when they put a black cape over themselves."

"What? So they… Turned invisible?"

"That would be the correct term, yes."

Taketa put the radio down again. He had already witnessed some strange sights from over the gate, the magic cast by this "Olva" being the culminating point. Having people from a world of magic able to turn invisible wasn't such a far-fetched possibility. He thanked Hakino and waited as the radio was passed to the officer once again.

"Abandon search of the construction site, Car 2 bring Hakino to the station for a deposition, Car 1 and 3 join Car 4 in trailing the GPS tracker."

As the officer accepted the order, Taketa switched the channel.

"Kanamori, to my office now."

He then put back the radio at his belt. Yuna came a few moments later.

"You called for me, sir?"

"Try and see how much patrols are available right now. The murderers are heading towards the gate, and I want to catch them before they reach the area under military control. We need as much patrols as possible. I'll go to the armory and see if I can get ourselves some heavier weaponry."

"In Tokyo sir? I doubt they'll give us the approval… The civilians-"

He interrupted her.

"Of course, I won't shoot in a crowded area! But we need every edge we can get. They have already proved they have no problem killing policemen, and if a shotgun or an automatic weapon can avoid more casualties then we take them. Each second counts!"

"Alright!"

She left the room quickly, and Taketa followed her soon.

Merely twenty minutes later, Taketa found himself in the underground parking of the police station. It was mostly empty as most of the cars were currently on patrol, but Yuna had managed to somehow bring in four more cars. Counting all the cars already trailing the GPS tracker, it was 9 cars and 18 policemen (including Taketa and Yuna) that were focused on catching a single group of murderers.

Taketa had gone to the armory earlier to get his hands on whatever was available, and the only weapons that were ready-to-go were a shipment of new MP5K submachine guns that were originally meant for the SAT teams of the station. By pulling a few strings and favors, he received a heavy crate with ten submachine guns and another crate filled with 9mm ammunition. He had received them relatively quickly, and while waiting for Yuna and the new patrol cars he had filled at least one twenty-round magazine for each gun. When all the policemen finally arrived, Taketa gathered them in a half-circle in front of him.

"Everyone, thank you for coming! I'm sure most of you know me, but just in case: I'm inspector Taketa Gennosuke, with my aide Yuna Kanamori. I'm on the case which cost the life of two of our comrades, as well as six others heavily wounded."

Most of the policemen's eyes flared with anger. Some of them had friends amidst the casualties of that day, but everyone was aware of one thing: these were dangerous killers. And it was their job to prevent these degenerates from harming the civilians, as well as avenge their fallen comrades. The most infamous of the group was that "Olva" woman. Her magic trick at the station had made a lot of noise, and it was only a matter of days before the media managed to put their hands on the footage.

"Here's the thing: I know where the murderers are heading, but to catch them I need all of you. Now, here's the tricky part: they're somehow invisible. Don't ask me why, I don't know how. But if they come from a world of dragons and foxgirls, well, I wouldn't say it's that strange."

One of the assembled policemen raised a hand, asking the obvious question.

"But sir, if they're invisible, how are we supposed to find them?"

"There's a GPS tracker on them. I'll give all of you the code to tap in the GPS tracking app in a minute. Plus, I have some ideas which I'll disclose on the road. For now, I need to know one thing: Are you ready to get injured, and maybe die for the sake of justice? It's a very real possibility, and I wouldn't blame you if you want to back off at this point."

An uncomfortable silence settled in the underground parking. Of course, everyone wanted to remain alive. But at the same time, they knew risks were involved when they engaged into the police force.

Yuna was the first to step forward. She was standing straight, left arm at her temple to salute Taketa. Slowly, but surely, each of the eight other policemen did the same. The last one was young, Taketa remembered he had joined the police just a month ago. His eyes were closed, his saluting hand trembled and discreet tears were forming at the corner of his eyes. He was scared, even terrified, but still remained.

Taketa stepped in his direction, and put a hand on his shoulder, smiling.

"I couldn't be prouder. People like you are the reason we can all look up to a bright future. Tell me, what drives you forward?"

The young policeman didn't answer, but his hand stopped shaking and his expression relaxed a bit. Taketa answered his own question.

"What drives me forward are the smiles. The smiles of the parents who can walk with their children safely. The smiles and laughs of kids playing. The smiles of the elderly when they're being helped to cross the streets. When people smile, it means we live in a healthy world. I hope you will find your reason to serve one day."

The young policeman opened his eyes, and a new resolve shined in them. Taketa stepped back with a satisfied expression to address all of them.

"Now, I managed to get ourselves some MP5K's. I hope you remember your training."

One by one, each officer took a submachine gun from the box as well as a magazine. While it wasn't a gun they were used to, it was still part of the quarterly training each policeman had the obligation to attend to. Magazines were slotted, handles pulled and gun straps fastened with precise movements.

"Now, everyone to your cars! Designations are car 6,7,8,9" He said, pointing to each car and the duo of policemen assigned to it. "Follow Car 5, we head to Ginza!"

As he walked to his car, he addressed Yuna.

"Kanamori, take the wheel, I have a feeling I'll receive a very angry phone call…"

Engines roared as they came to life and sirens started blaring their cry as the cars left the police station. And just like his predictions, his smartphone rang merely a minute later. And obviously, the face of his superior was showing on the screen. Commander Keisuke was the most graded member of the station, he only answered to the highest authorities. Sighing, he swiped to answer.

"Commander Keisuke I-"

The commander's furious voice was even heard by Yuna.

"GENNOSUKE!"

A few seconds of silence passed.

"Not only you take weapons out of the armory for no real reason, you also take police cars who should be patrolling other places right now! You know what's happening? There was Yakuza violence! One of the cars you took was supposed to be trailing a clue for the perpetrator! And three other places now don't have any patrols surveying it! I'll have to call reserve forces! You better have a damn good reason for your actions!"

"Sir, I'm on the Fuyu case. The family that was murdered less than a week ago. I know who the murderers are, and I have very good reasons to believe they're from the other side of the gate!"

"And?"

"Right now, they're heading towards it! If they manage to go through, we'll probably never find them back! Are we to tell the families of the victims "sorry they escaped" when we had them under our nose?"

"You know there's a procedure for getting weapons from the armory?! And to ask for more officers for a case?! You can't just get them freely! We have a tight schedule to run here, and you're breaking it apart!"

"Commander, with all due respect, I have a duty to bring these degenerates behind bars! I don't want to let them go, especially with what they've done!"

A long moment of silence passed, then a sigh sounded through the phone.

"I'll close my eyes. This single time, Gennosuke. Do you hear me? You can be sure your next raise is gone, and should you make a SINGLE error, we'll have to talk. Extensively. Oh, and another thing. That footage of that "Olva" woman you sent me? You have to get her. The moment I sent it to the government and the military high-command saw it, I got assaulted by everyone wanting to study her."

The beeping of the ended phone call rang in his ear, and Taketa put it back into a pocket.

"Kanamori, while the others look for the murderers bring me to the soldiers around the gate, I need to speak to commanding officer."

"Yes sir."

Fortunately, Ginza wasn't that far from the police station. Thanks to the sirens, they reached it in about ten minutes, but that didn't mean they were ahead of the murderers. Gennosuke had checked on an app on his phone out of curiosity, but thirty minutes was the time needed to walk between the Gate and the construction site.

During that time, he also revealed what his idea was to find invisible people: flour. A lot of flour. He had taken a lot of flour bags from the station's cafeteria, and had distributed it evenly between the five cars that came from the station, while more flour would be distributed to the other four cars when they joined. By spreading that flour around, it would be easy to spot them, considering that their invisibility didn't let things through. It certainly sounded silly, but for a problem which required an immediate solution, it was remarkably cost-effective.

Finally arriving at the area in front of the first military checkpoint leading to the gate, the police cars formed another roadblock right in front of it. After all, the points on their GPS tracker wasn't far, and was heading straight to them.

Understandably, the soldiers manning the checkpoint got suspicious and immediately walked out of their position towards Gennosuke who was also walking in their direction. The soldiers hadn't raised their rifles, but they were clearly ready to do so.

"Hey, this is an area under JSDF control! Leave right this instant!" said the first soldier. Judging from the marking on his shoulders, he was the lieutenant leading his squad, and on his chest was his name, " ".

Gennosuke took out his police badge and showed him.

"Lieutenant Takeo, I am Taketa Gennosuke from the Tokyo police. I have very good reasons to believe a group of individuals will try to cross the gate soon, and I want to catch them before that. I was hoping you could help us in setting up a roadblock."

"Well I'm waiting for a military shipment and you're blocking the road! Now scram! I have strict orders to not let anyone near, and that includes policemen!"

"But they're criminals! I'm sure you've seen on the news about that family that got brutally murdered a few days ago! It's them!"

The lieutenant sighed and put a hand on Taketa's shoulder.

"Listen here. My boys and girls here? They're soldiers. They've trained for months to know how to shoot a gun and drop a fucker to the ground. And a good part of them participated in foreign wars. Your criminals? They're nothing. If they come here, they're dead the moment they get close. You can put your roadblock, but do it further away. And even before military presence was set up here? Not a single soul came from the other world to ours."

"But you don't understand, they can turn invisible! That's how they came in the first place! They'll be here any second, I even have a GPS tracker on them!"

It was the "last card" argument Gennosuke had shouted out of desperation. Thinking back on it, maybe it had just worsened the situation for him. But he truly wanted these murderers caught.

It turned out the lieutenant wasn't a man to take it seriously.

"Are you trying to be funny, mister Gennosuke? They can turn invisible? You'll have to find a better story to make me trust you. In fact, I'm starting to think you're suspicious. Very suspicious. You barge in telling you're from the police, yet we weren't made aware of such a decision? You put a roadblock right in front of my military checkpoint? No, no, no, I don't think so. You will put your weapon down, all of you "policemen", and until I pass a phone call to my superiors you won't move. Oh, and by the way, show me that GPS tracker you have on your "murderers"."

A little bit alarmed at this point, Gennosuke raised his arms to the sky in frustration then showed the lieutenant his phone while looking around. The murderers could literally be anywhere at this point, they even could be past this very checkpoint.

"Lieutenant!" Shouted another soldier. "I see the trucks at the end of the street, they've arrived!"

"Good, good." He answered, checking the screen at the same time. "Now mister Gennosuke, tell your men to scram, I have a truck to-"

The lieutenant's voice was cut. He looked at the screen, then at the three trucks arriving. Then, in one quick move he unholstered the pistol at his side and pointed it at Taketa. The soldiers at the checkpoint raised their weapons as well while the policemen looked at them with confused expressions.

"Well, that is very interesting! You'll have the pleasure to explain high command why you have a GPS tracker right on our military trucks. I'm sure they'll be very interested to know why you did that. I'm taking you into custody, and that counts for all of your "police officer" friends! Drop your weapons! Goda, tell HQ that the trucks have arrived and that some kind of clown has our trucks tracked by GPS!"

"Wha- But…"

"No buts! Now, everyone hands in the air!"

Slowly raising his hands, Taketa grinded his teeth in frustration. He couldn't blame the lieutenant, after all even he recognized that had he been in the lieutenant's place, he would have acted the same. But at the same time he couldn't help but remember that face full of contempt he had tried to question. No, he wouldn't let them run away once more!

Waiting with tense expressions, the mercenaries held their breath as the large iron chariots stopped in front of the military checkpoint they wanted to pass.

Unfortunately, the checkpoint was comprised of a solid metallic fence which was only opened by the soldiers when something needed to go through. No climbing over it without getting spotted.

They had spotted these green iron chariots a few minutes ago, and using an opportunity where the chariot had stopped in front of a pole with a red light on top, they had cut a few straps holding the green tarp above the holding area in the back and climbed inside. Emroy's veil had made sure that they didn't get spotted.

It was cramped as the inside was filled with a large vehicle, even larger than the usual iron chariots. It had some kind of chains instead of wheels, and a snout on top of it. And judging from the thickness of the metal, it wasn't about to get damaged by arrows or even ballistae's.

All four mercenaries stopped, their mouth gaping on front of such a colossus.

"Is that… Is that something they take to war?" whispered Gelt.

"I'm afraid so…" answered Ygar.

"Impressive… I suppose that in addition to that snout which is a weapon, it can crush men like nothing…" added Velgard.

"We should leave it alone." Finished Olva. "I don't want to put the theory to the test."

As this was definitely a vehicle they didn't want to wake up, they quietly looked over to the rest of the holding area. In addition to the "steel elephant" as they called it now, they were also metallic barrels filled with a liquid and metallic plates which judging from their shape were spare parts for the steel elephant.

Watching through a small opening in the green tarp, Velgard was surprised to see a strange sight. The guards in blue were being menaced by the guards in green, while one member of each side was arguing loudly. He didn't know the reason why, but it didn't matter. All it mattered was that the large iron chariot they were in moved forward, past the first military checkpoint.

They now had to find a way to go past the second checkpoint, and then past the defensive ring around the gate. Luckily, all the defenses were placed against what would come out of it, not against someone that would want to go in.

As he reveled at this stroke of luck, he suddenly froze. He recognized this smell. This noise.

"Dogs…"

Outside, a dog was barking and growling at the iron chariot they were in. Loudly. And now, all the soldiers in the area looked at the chariot with curiosity.

Hello there, author here,

First I would like to point out an obvious issue: I know my characters aren't likable. I'm certainly not the best at writing, and it certainly sounds different when I imagine what they do in my head than when I write it down. Fortunately, someone helped me a lot in that regard, and I hope that how my characters are perceived will change in the future. I also got helped to straighten up the mess I write, so I hope it will get better as well.

Mail Lambong: Well, the title is "Thus the Empire actually had common sense", isn't it? I try to write how a normal person with common sense would think in a given situation. Things won't be the same.(And also, you can't believe how thankful I am for your last sentence. It really, really helps that people think of my story like that!)

Broken life cycle: My point wasn't that America never got defeated. My point was that how absurd it was to think that USA would get invaded on their own soil and beaten in 10 days.Oh and yeah, there's no way they'll get past unscathed.

Dreadcraft: Really? You would kill thousands upon thousands of innocents just for the eventuality something you don't know anything about can cause massive damage? I see your point, and I see why people would agree with it. But personally, I believe in "innocent until proven guilty". A nuke is a terrible weapon, something that is to be used as the absolute last resort.And anyway, even in the LN or anime the japanese knew about magic thanks to Lelei, Kato and Tuka. And yet, they didn't take any particular hard stances against them, did they?

Again, thank you for the incredible support. It means a lot.

See you next publication!