Side: Kasumigaseki
The atmosphere at the Bureau of Paranormal Countermeasures was the same as ever, but there were things that were changing, too.
For one, the staff had grown considerably. The core members were the ones who had been there since before the disclosure. It was plain to anyone that their record of results had earned them recognition.
Ordinarily, in peacetime, there were conventions — academic background, factions and the like — by which promotions and personnel transfers and working relationships got built. But everyone understood that now was an emergency.
Ironically, it was the bureaucrats, alarmed by politicians who couldn't pull the country together, who were pushing forward cooperation that cut across positions and ministries.
The backup for the Bureau of Paranormal Countermeasures had grown astonishingly robust, to the surprise of the original members — they could now even communicate directly with people at the administrative vice-minister level in each ministry.
And on this particular day, a "Paranormal Space Countermeasures Meeting" was being held. It was something they had carried out in secret many times before, but the roster of attendees had changed substantially, and now it was moving in earnest.
"Are we really allowed to go this far?"
The members of the Bureau let out a murmur at the latest report. It had been the Bureau, after all, that submitted the report to the ministries, and they had heard a good part of it before the meeting.
It was just that the substance had gone further than they'd expected. Above all, on the most pressing issue — the personnel who would actually go into the dungeons on the ground — it was, in a good way, beyond what they had imagined.
"We'll persuade the Prime Minister on our end. You needn't worry about that."
The one explaining was a senior official of the Ministry of Defense.
They were going to form, on a temporary and rush basis, a unit that would enter the dungeons. The personnel would be drawn mainly from volunteers — several hundred from the ground, sea, and air forces, and if possible they'd gather around a thousand.
That the Self-Defense Forces would move this far was something none of the Bureau staff had imagined. The risks of the dungeons were still unclear, and the legal framework hadn't even reached the stage of being debated. As a workaround for the difficulty of operating within the law, they would handle it by seconding the personnel over to the Bureau — that, too, was beyond what anyone had expected.
Given the recent situation, even the Self-Defense Forces were facing a manpower shortage. It wasn't as though they had a great deal of personnel to spare. Still, maybe because they judged it a national crisis, there were many volunteers among the SDF members.
"Each ministry has also agreed on a support structure for the SDF members, within the bounds of current law. There are legal constraints, but no further chaos can be permitted."
Because the dungeons' threat level was rated low, it was difficult, at this point, to acknowledge the situation as a national emergency. But training up personnel who could operate inside the dungeons was something that could no longer wait.
Measures were being laid out to build a cooperative structure within the range that current law allowed.
The Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were pressing ahead — unofficially — with examining whether information on military action inside the dungeons could be shared between Japan and the U.S., and they were considering equipment sharing as well.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare was looking into the use of medical institutions in nearby municipalities, and methods of transporting the injured, on the assumption that there would be injuries inside the dungeons.
Incidentally, the groundwork with the ministers and other politicians had largely been done. There had been some who balked at it, but with a mix of hard and soft persuasion, the groundwork with the ruling-party politicians was progressing too.
Whatever form the handling of the dungeons took, that they'd need to train up people who could go inside was something even a child could understand.
Of course, this was being examined together with guarantees for the SDF members, who might face a worst-case event.
"We'll count on you to send up your reports as before, and to act as coordinators. We won't let you come out badly for it — trust us."
When the meeting ended, the sense of crisis still on them, the attendees hurried back to their respective posts.
The nation of Japan was, at last, beginning to wake.
Side: Amahashi Kakeru
Phys ed was the easiest, hands down. Probably because, with all the moving around I'd done over there too, it was the subject where I had the least rust. I felt like some character out of an old manga who was good at gym class and nothing else.
"Amahashi, hey. You going out with Horii-san?"
Maybe because the lesson was split by gender today, a male classmate near me suddenly hit me with that.
"Yeah, I want to know that too. Guys from the other classes and the upperclassmen keep asking me about it."
It wasn't quite an escalator system, but a lot of the students had come up from Kusanagi Academy's middle school, so for first-years there seemed to be a lot of connections among them.
Maybe that was part of why word got around so fast.
"No, we're not going out."
The look they gave me was dubious — no, openly suspicious.
"You guys, that's a bad way to ask."
"Amahashi, just answer honestly. It doesn't feel bad getting close with Horii-san, right? You'd take the chance to go out with her if you could, right?"
Classmates were gathering around me. Honestly, it wasn't like they were little kids… oh wait, they were kids. High schoolers.
"Sure. Setting aside whether I'd want to go out with her, it wouldn't feel bad."
What was this about, now. Ask a hundred people that and all hundred would answer the same. She was pretty and her personality wasn't bad either, so anyone but the seriously warped would be glad — even just to become friends.
"Then let me rephrase the question. The famous homestay beauties and Horii-san — who's the front-runner?"
That sounded less like a question than an interrogation…
"They're all just friends. Well, the girls living at my place aren't so much friends as homestay guests my household took in, but. And anyway, I'm not exactly in a position to be picking and choosing."
What were these guys on about. Watched too much anime?
Pricia and the others weren't in any going-out kind of relationship. Horii-san I couldn't quite read, but I figured she just sensed in me something she didn't have, something different from those around her, and that was all.
"Guys who are popular always say that, huh."
"Yep, yep."
Even if you say so… I'd never even had a girlfriend. Never been on a single date.
"We have information that you were on a date with Horii-san after school. Is this true?"
"It wasn't a date. We just walked home together."
I stated the facts as facts. That was all.
"…You lot. Should I remind you that you're in the middle of class?"
The classmates who'd been giving me the suspicious eye scattered like a brood of baby spiders at the words of the teacher who'd come up behind them.
Phew. Saved, somehow.
"By the way, Amahashi — you're really not going out with Horii?"
"Sensei…"
I couldn't help slumping. So he'd been listening. The way he said it sounded less like a joke and more like he genuinely wanted to know.
"Don't go making a girl cry, now. Being popular can't be helped, and I won't tell you not to play around, but."
Um, could you please stop talking about me like I'm some playboy? Take one look and you'd know. I'm not exactly a gloomy loner, but I'm not a sunny extrovert like Kitamura either.
I'm an ordinary guy who doesn't stand out. Well, everyone would figure that out soon enough, anyway.
Combat ability wasn't even any use at school.
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