The Prime Minister of Japan sighed as the visitor entered his office.
Indeed, while the National Diet and the other trappings of democracy such as himself still existed on paper the fact was that it was Japan's corporate interests who really ran the show.
None of this was new for the nation of Japan, of course. Even in old times, it was the Shogun, the chief military official of the country who ran the actual operations of the nation who actually controlled political matters for the longest time. The Emperor was simply a figurehead. Japanese corporations had been similar as well, with the CEO usually not being the one who actually ran the company.
His only real job was to rubber stamp decisions that the corporations had already approved.
Some might say that even in the old days corporations and wealthy businessman had been far from silent when it came to politics. But even then, they had only been one of the loudest voices rather than being the only voice.
No- actually, to say that his only real job was to sign off on decisions was incorrect. The Prime Minister did have a job- the same as that of a CEO of the old Japanese corporations, namely, to take blame when it came time to take blame and resign his post.
There might have been a time when the Prime Minister would have, in his younger, more idealistic days, dreamed of a large crisis coming to the country. After all, the greatest leaders- the ones who were remembered by time, were those who led their nations through times of crisis. Of course, now that he actually had the job he had been vying for his whole life, he knew the only thing he would probably get to do was apologize on television and then resign only for the next idiot to take his chair and for the cycle to repeat itself.
Now that a crisis had actually come, he was now desperately wishing that he could've been a run of the mill Prime Minister who would leave his office having done particularly nothing of note.
The visitor was the Shosho or the Major General of the Kenpeitai, the department which the corporations had deemed sufficient to handle this new crisis.
And what a crisis it was.
"Good evening, Sir," the Shosho said and made a polite bow before asking to sit down. Once the Prime Minister had granted him permission to sit, the Shosho began to dive into business immediately.
"We have word from the Americans," the Shosho said. "They too, have been experiencing these strange spikes of people gaining supernatural powers. As for the Chinese and the Russians, we have no word from them yet, but our intelligence agents say that they too, have been affected even though they are remaining silent. The 2nd and 3rd European Arcologies are still at war, and as such getting any information out of them is difficult." He then pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. Paper was a lot easier to get rid of than data which always left a trail.
The Prime Minister glanced over the sheet of paper which was a list of words written in English.
Fireball
Create Water
Charm Person
Silence
Compass
Acid Arrow
Summon Demon 2nd Tier
Summon Demon 1st Tier
Summon Demon 3rd Tier
Heavy Recover
Mass Middle Cure Wounds
He then frowned. "Are these spells from Dungeons & Dragons?"
"Ah, that's what we thought too," the Shosho said. "We have managed to conduct, ah, certain experiments, regarding those with these strange magical powers. The way it works is that the person in question must invoke the name of a spell by chanting its name first, and these are a list of spells we have managed to extract from the prisoners."
The Prime Minister shuddered at the casual use of the word 'prisoners' given that the man was referring to people of his own country who had done no wrong. It was deeply unsettling, but given the Kenpeitai's history there was probably no one more suited to the task of rounding up their own citizens than them.
"For some reason, all spells are named in English," the Shosho said. That was a common theme in current Japanese games and media, but it was still odd to note. Other media usually used Latin or Greek languages to base their spells off of. "None of the prisoners seem to know why they can cast these spells, just that they somehow instinctively know how to use them and what they do. There also seems to be a sort of 'mana' for lack of a better term which is consumed when spells are used. Those who were awake at midnight pinpoint the burst of light as the time when these powers arose."
The Prime Minister nodded. This was like something out of a comic book- no, rather, something out of a video game to be more accurate. "And who is responsible for this burst of light?" The Prime Minister had been awake when it had happened as well, and though it had not harmed him it had not granted him supernatural powers either.
"We do not know," the Shosho said. "The obvious candidates are the Chinese or Russians, mainly because everyone blames everything on them, but we can't rule out the Americans or Europeans either."
"And do these spells work the same way in foreign countries?" the Prime Minister asked. "Or do they chant German or even Japanese words for spells in America?"
"Unclear, as of now," the Shosho said. "But it seems that the Americans are having far more trouble controlling their population than we are. There have been nationwide protests over there against an attempted lockdown. But, there is something else that happened which seems to be suspicious. Have you heard of a DMMORPG by the name of Yggdrasil?"
"The world tree in Scandinavian mythology?" the Prime Minister asked. He had played some DMMORPGs when he was younger, his favorite had been Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic [Remastered] at the time. It had been revolutionary to wander around the galaxy as a Jedi Knight and to be able to almost feel a lightsaber in your hands. The game was a foreign release though, and as such only a select few in Japan had been able to get their hands on it, with him being one of them.
"Well, it is a game named after that," the Shosho said. "But, the thing is that the game was shut down last night. At midnight. And these names of spells and the mention of tiers in certain spell names matches perfectly with Yggdrasil's own magic systems."
"Many games use this magic system, don't they?" the Prime Minster remarked. Didn't the Elder Scrolls XVII also have such a system?
"Yes, there are similar systems, but not the exact ones like we see in Yggdrasil," the Shosho said. "And there is something far more disturbing. Everyone who was involved in the development of the game, at least, everyone who was in their offices at midnight is now dead. A fire broke out there, and once it was extinguished, the bodies were examined and were determined to have died before the fire started. In addition, while examining their office, the fire seems to have exposed a, ah, for lack of a better term, what seems to be a secret lair of sorts which was not in the building's original plans. At least not the official ones. All data of the official game has been wiped clean. There is no more data on the players, on the worlds in the game, or even on the items that were in the game. What we know about the game right now is from fan websites. Not even their backups remain. Several hard drives related to developer notes and accounts are encrypted, and it will take weeks if not months to get through to them. Normally we would demand that they un-encrypt them themselves, but given that everyone there died..."
Throughout this whole scenario, the Prime Minister had been nodding but also wondering why it was that anyone was bothering telling him, a glorified figurehead, about all of this. And it was now that his question would be answered.
"In other words what I want to come to is that it isn't the Chinese, Russians, or Americans who are the most likely culprits- it is us, the nation of Japan," the Shosho said.
"What?" the Prime Minister asked. "Are you saying this just based on a video game analogy?"
"No," the Shosho said. He pulled out a few satellite images. "We can see the wave of light as it envelops the Earth in real time. Though it moved within seconds, these satellites show that it seems to originate from Japan. As for the exact location, we can't tell with our limited data. But, if we can figure it out-"
"-then I will no doubt be receiving calls from other countries right now," the Prime Minister said as he understood and sighed. "No doubt asking what we know about this."
The Shosho smiled. "You are as intelligent as they say. And yes, though all we require you to do is to defer those questions for the time being, we thought as a courtesy we would let you know. This won't stay under wraps, at least not from you, for long. There is even a member of the Diet who has been affected."
The strange phenomenon seemed to grant abilities to people regardless of class, gender, or social standing. And that was what made it really dangerous. From what the reports said, those with healing magic seemed to be able to cure wounds in the span of a few seconds- even reverse the damage of pollution. Something like that could bankrupt all healthcare companies.
And that was just the start. Right now, some citizens were capable of damaging other citizens with magical spells, some of which seemed to be more dangerous than a gun. Not only that, mind controlling magic also seemed to exist, so that was going to be a convenient defense for almost anyone who was going to be charged with a crime. Something like this would completely rewrite the existing social order.
At the very least though, he was thankful that they weren't in America. If he knew the country as well as he did, the people there would already be claiming this as a gift of God with the government largely unable to control things. Come to think of it, there were probably already people within his own country who thought so, though their numbers were quite few.
"Well," the Shosho said as he suddenly got an alert on his phone. "It appears there is a matter I need to attend to. Thank you for your time."
"I take it the quarantine will continue as it already has?" the Prime Minister asked.
"Why yes," the Shosho said. "Until we have a better grasp of the situation it needs to go on. Now, please, excuse me, this is important."
The Shosho walked out of the Prime Minister's office and once he was in a secluded area the neutral expression on his face vanished as he reread the text message.
An entire group of thirty soldiers had vanished.
They weren't dead- there were no bodies. Their entire unit had suddenly disappeared along with their vehicles and equipment. In the building where they had been sent, all the civilians were gone as well.
There were no traces of evidence.
Was this some sort of strange spell at work? That would be the logical conclusion.
Other soldiers had been sent to scout the place but nothing had come of it.
This was like one of the ghost stories he had read as a kid- about ships vanishing within a place such as the Bermuda Triangle. Regardless of what it appeared ot be though, he needed to tackle this head on.
"Ah, your report, Albedo," Suzuki Satoru remarked as he saw Albedo waiting for him outside his room.
"Yes, Momonga-sama," Albedo replied. "You did want one, and I felt it was better to tell you in person."
Suzuki really was fine with having the report delivered to him when he visited the Throne Room, but this was also fine.
Truth be told, he was constantly agonizing about what he had done earlier. While the mission had technically gone off without a hitch, the point remained that he wasn't sure they hadn't been detected.
He had told the Hanzos about the various listening and surveillance devices that had been set up around and the Hanzos assured him that they had gotten all of them, but he still wasn't sure of that. Such devices did not exist in Yggdrasil and it was only all too likely that something of the sort had been missed. As such, he had still had the Hanzos stay guard in the building where they had rescued those civilians to monitor anyone who dropped by.
What was even worse was that anti-divination magic did not seem to work on modern electronic devices. Spells and items which made one invisible seemed to render them invisible on film as well, but the problem was that Suzuki had not been invisible when he had stepped out to rescue those civilians.
Perhaps it was a mistake saying my name like that.
He had used the name 'Momon' rather than Suzuki Satoru, but if by chance any camera had managed to record him saying that, he worried it could be traced back to him.
If there were other people who had gained Yggdrasil powers they probably had linked it to the game much as he had. As such, if they looked through the servers, they would find mention of the username Momon given that no two players in Yggdrasil could have the same username. Furthermore, they would also get to know of the name of the Great Underground Tomb of Nazarick. They might even find the other guild members via their IP addresses and could be doing it at the very moment.
Am I being too paranoid? The Hanzos are sure that they got everything...
"Several more members of those officer corps came to the scene, but they examined it and simply left," Albedo said.
"Are you sure that information on us hasn't leaked to the outside?" Suzuki asked.
"Forgive me, but without interrogating one of the other officers we cannot know for sure," Albedo said.
"Ah, fine then," Suzuki said. He didn't know if memory altering magic worked in this world, otherwise he could always use Charm or Dominate to get what he needed. However, if he went down that route he would have to kidnap the officers in question to make sure they didn't talk if memory altering magic didn't work.
And he didn't want to meddle any further.
"And what about the prisoners? And integrating the human civilians into the Sixth Floor?" Suzuki asked.
"Momonga-sama, the integration and interrogation are both going smoothly," Albedo said. "Based on our intel, we have a few humans capable of using spells, though at maximum the spells are only of the Second Tier at most."
"Were these people who can use magic also Yggdrasil players?" Suzuki asked.
"Forgive me," Albedo said with a confused look on her face. "I do not know what this 'Yggdrasil' means."
"Oh right, no problem," Suzuki replied. "Just ask if they've heard of the term."
So it seemed that many people had been granted abilities from Yggdrasil, not just those who played the game. However, it did not seem that anyone else had been reborn into their avatars like Momonga had.
How then was it decided who got powers? Was it at random? Or was there some method behind this?
"Anything else?" Suzuki asked.
"There is one thing," Abledo said, her face contorting with rage. "Every single one of the humans you have so generously housed within the Sixth Floor of Nazarick have asked when they can leave and go back to their homes."
There was no way that I could let that happen.
He had used the Mirror of Remote Viewing to see what was going on in the interrogation camps that the Kenpeitai had sent up. No one would want to go back there.
However, of course, the people within Nazarick didn't know what was going on or what was going to happen to them if they went back. They obviously, reasonably, wanted to go ahead and go back to the comfort of their homes. He could understand that.
"Such a thing is an impossibility," Suzuki said. "Even if they are not killed they might talk about us to the authorities. Tell them I will meet with them tomorrow and see about their request."
"Momonga-sama, there is no need for one as you to visit such lowly creatures yourself," Albedo said. "And there is no need for such generosity towards such creatures. They, who have so charitably been allowed to stay in the Great Tomb of Nazarick by Momonga-sama himself would dare to spit on such generosity..." Her hands trembled with rage and her pupils were dilated. "Why, they should be crushed like vermin!"
"Albedo!" Suzuki reprimanded. "I understand your concern, but it is no great matter. These people are guests after all, not prisoners. Is this all?"
Albedo pouted but still bowed her head in a dignified matter and seemed to calm down.
"Yes," Albedo said. "But there is another matter that I would like to discuss with you."
"Hmm? Proceed."
"It is regarding my creator, Tabula Smaragdina-sama," Albedo said. Her wings began to tremble. "Are you and Herohero-sama intending to contact him?"
"Um, Herohero is currently asleep," Suzuki said. He had found it odd when Hiroshi had retired for the night- but then again his own skeletal body did not feel fatigue and it was possible that the turmoil that was today's events weighed heavily on Hiroshi. As such, he thought it would be odd to visit Tabula without taking his guild mate along for the ride. "And as such, such a matter must then wait for tomorrow."
"Ah, I just have a selfish request," Albedo said and turned her head away shyly. "Could I accompany you to meet my creator?"
"Ah, he would be a human," Suzuki replied.
"Indeed, I know that, but he is still my creator, and I would like to meet him," Albedo said.
Suzuki scratched his chin. This was not a completely unreasonable request, and he supposed it might actually be beneficial to bring Albedo along. After all, if he was going to convince Tabula's human self that the game was real, there was hardly any better proof than bringing his creation along with him. "I can agree to that, but I ask that you wear a disguise or remain hidden until I tell you to present yourself to him. I want to give him some time to understand what I'm going to tell him." Suzuki did not want to spring Albedo upon Tabula out of the blue and would need some time to get him used to the idea that Yggdrasil had affected the real world before he dropped the bombshell.
"Alright then. Thank you, Suzuki-sama!" Albedo said with a wry smile.
"E-Eh?" Suzuki exclaimed. "Ah, where did you hear that name?"
Albedo now looked away rather shy. "I've overheard you and Herohero-sama do not call each other by your actual names but these alternate ones, so I thought that if Herohero-sama could call you by a pet name, I could as well."
Pet name? That's my real name- but I guess she doesn't know that.
She was blushing slightly and had turned her face away though her eyes were still fixed on him, like a shy schoolgirl asking her crush out. It was clear she was wondering if it was really okay for her to address him as Suzuki.
"Ah, well then, it's fine," Suzuki said. "You may address me as that."
Albedo now smiled widely, bowed, and almost skipped out of the room.
Once she was outside and back in her own chambers, she couldn't help but let a wide grin come over her face.
Suzuki! She didn't like the name as much as she liked Momonga, but if only the Supreme Beings could call her love with that name, then that meant that in a way, Momonga had elevated herself to be his equal by allowing her to use that name!
No, she could never truly be his equal, but even then, she still smiled as she thought of the generosity that had been bestowed upon her.
Once she had calmed down a little, she got back to business.
Her creator- while she didn't exactly hate him as deeply as she resented the others, the fact was that when compared to Momonga-sama, he was nothing in the grand scheme of things. She would regret killing him if she had to, for a while at least, but she was sure she would get over it.
That was of course, if her creator posed a threat to her love that is.
However, there was still something she couldn't figure out. Why were some of the Supreme Beings in human form?
Demiurge wasn't even talking about it, and when she had pressed him on the matter he had just smirked as if the two of them were in on some inside joke. That implied that he had an idea regarding the matter and expected Albedo had also thought of it. Momonga-sama hadn't even told her anything directly, so that clearly meant that he expected her to know already.
But as hard as she strained her mind, she couldn't think of a reason.
This was unacceptable- as a servant of the Supreme Beings she had to try harder in order to understand them.
Meanwhile, Suzuki was pacing around in his room. It appeared he had no need for sleep and as such he was unsure of how he was going to spend the night.
Bored, he teleported outside the Tomb to glance at the surrounding areas. The pollution did not really obscure his own sight, and he could see the moon.
It got him thinking- he was an undead creature after all. Could he survive in space?
He had heard from Blue Planet that eventually, given enough time, the very sun would swallow the Earth.
"So you know, if we all want to survive as a species we'd have to eventually find another habitable planet. But the thing is that space travel's been going nowhere for years, and it doesn't seem like that'll ever be possible," he remembered Blue Planet saying. Blue Planet did enjoy playing space exploration games as well, and it was probably a love for astronomy that led to such a wonderful depiction of a night sky on the Sixth Floor.
As such, if time went on that long as it may very well given he was now a deathless creature, would he maybe be forced to go to another planet?
While he would be immune to cold and didn't need air, there was a problem given that he was more sensitive to heat than other creatures. Heat was a problem, or at least he thought so.
Given that, it occurred to him that he had once read that the universe itself had a definite lifespan- that eventually the entropy of the universe would reach a point where atoms would no longer hold each other to form objects.
But, that was a thermodynamic law. Magic, which he had now, seemed to circumvent all laws of physics. Could he perhaps survive even something like that?
These thoughts and more, including wondering if he could clear the pollution with magic lingered in his mind as he gazed at the moon.
Of course, such problems were millions of years off in the distance and he had to occupy himself with what was going on right now.
Space.
The Final Frontier.
It had long since been mankind's dream to travel amongst the stars.
For a time at least, it seemed as if mankind was going to succeed. They put a man on Mars in the year 2053. This was done by the Americans, and as expected the Chinese attempted to replicate this maneuver before a civil war broke out there.
After that though, any of mankind's dreams to colonize Mars, or the moon for that matter, went nowhere. The costs involved with such a project were prohibitive, and there were no real benefits to going towards space. Even with the Earth quite literally scorched it was still far more hospitable than any other planet that humanity could reach. The idea of finding another hospitable planet was a popular one, but they had not found such a planet yet and they could not aimlessly wander across the stars for no reason. Given that spacecraft still could not fly faster than light, the limitations of a human lifespan were also a factor.
Some people theorized of making nuclear plants on other planets or dumping toxic waste there, but the thing was that the world's economic output had declined a very great deal along with its population. Natural resources were so scarce that trying to fund something like that was deemed a colossal waste.
As such, anyone who had dreamed of where mankind would go in the past century would be sorely disappointed at the practically nonexistent progress space travel had made. Commercial space flight was still just a pipe dream.
The International Space Station, however, was still operating. One of the astronauts on board looked out a window at the Earth.
He had seen earlier photos of how breathtaking the Earth appeared from outer space. No longer was it so as a dark cloud of pollution obscured most of what could be seen of the blue planet. It honestly made the Earth look as desolate as the moon itself- no, that was wrong. At least, when people gazed at the moon from the Earth they still talked about how beautiful it had been for centuries. But, there was no such sentiment looking at the Earth like that. It was only a reminder of what the Earth had once been.
The astronaut went looking through the logs and saw something interesting. One of the cameras caught the Earth 'shining' somehow as if it was a mirror for a few seconds.
Intrigued, the astronaut sent a report to mission control, and with his day's work done he decided to call up his wife.
He frowned. It appeared all civilian lines had been disconnected in America.
He woke up his roommate- turns out the same problem was happening with Korea as well.
He couldn't even access the Internet. What was going on here?
Takeshi fidgeted in his seat uncomfortable. Not that the set was uncomfortable in any way, on the contrary both the seat and the food served before him was excellent, but it was the situation he was in that made him uncomfortable.
For starters, just this morning he had been told that the whole city would be under quarantine. Neat, he had thought, he could get out of that series of meetings at work that he was rather hoping to get out of and now spend that time playing video games. Ah, the Internet was down, but he had quite a few games downloaded that worked offline and though he would be short on rent if the quarantine went on for too long, he was fine for now.
And then, when he went outside to the vending machine, he saw a little girl suddenly summon a monster. The girl's mother looked shocked and grabbed the girl and ushered her back into her own apartment, and the monster vanished along with them.
Needless to say his first reaction was to call the police. Which he did.
He had thought he would be dismissed as a crazy person- instead the freaking Japanese secret service was at the doorstep of their building within minutes, several people were dead, and just as he was about to be arrested, a guy in a mask came out of nowhere and knocked out the Kenpeitai and then transported them all here where they were greeted by a woman with a dog for a head.
Needless to say this was all very disturbing, but through his panic something began to form through his mind.
The spell he had heard a while back ago that the man had chanted, Fireball was it? And the way the maid referred to herself as an Homunculus. It reminded him of Yggdrasil... a DMMORPG he had played for a few months before quitting. Come to think of it, that weird armor that one person wore seemed to be very much like a Power Suit.
The name of the Great Tomb of Nazarick also seemed somewhat familiar as if he had heard it somewhere before but didn't quite recall what it referred to.
He saw that the maid with a dog's face was counting some gold coins and an idea came to him.
The rest of his fellow human prisoners/guests were mostly eating quietly. Very few of them dared go near the maid known as Pestonya, but if Takeshi was going to figure out whether or not he was right he would have to take this risk.
As it was, it did not seem like Pestonya was the angry type.
She looked at him with what seemed like surprise when he approached her.
"As, Pestonya-san, if it is alright with you, I would like to ask a little favor," he said.
"Oh? And what would that be?" Pestonya asked.
"I just, ah, wanted to see one of those coins you're counting," he said.
"These coins? Woof!" she asked.
"Ah yes," he said. "I don't want to keep one or anything, just I'm a bit of a collector and wanted to see the design. I just want to see the design please- I promise!"
Pestonya looked at him strangely.
At least, he guessed she looked at him strangely. It was hard to tell with her dog face.
Behind him, he could feel the gazes of everyone else in the room fixated on his back. He tried to hide how nervous he was and how much he was sweating.
This maid did have a dog's head, but no tail he could discern. One could usually figure out a dog's mood by looking at their tail, but she didn't have one. Or maybe she did have one, but it was just hidden beneath her skirt.
"Ah, well, I don't see why not," Pestonya said and handed him a coin.
He looked at its design. It was a picture of a woman- the picture on coins in Yggdrasil after the Valkyrie's Downfall Event update. It was the same size as well, and according to the game's lore one coin would be worth 100,000 yen. "So this is from Yggdrasil..." he muttered.
"Hmm?" Pestonya asked.
"Ah, nothing, thank you very much," he said and handed her the coin back. There was something else that bothered him. "Ah, if this is not intruding, are you perhaps using this gold to resurrect someone?" Gold and gems were needed for higher tier resurrection spells in Yggdrasil, and that was one reason why he could think someone like her would have one. Many people who designed characters too look like maids also made them healers. Of course, gold could also be used for over a thousand different purposes but he took a lucky guess.
"My my, you are right indeed," Pestonya said. Ah, so apparently resurrection also worked in this world?
He smiled, thanked her again, and bowed as well as a sign of courtesy before going back to his seat.
So there were too possibilities. Either these guys were something akin to aliens and were roleplaying as if they were from Yggdrasil, or the game had somehow managed to come to life.
He wasn't sure which one was the crazier idea.
For now though, he chose to concentrate on the food.
A family consisting of a mother, father, and their young son was was about eight years old sat opposite to him. He saw that they had inquisitive looks, as well as did the other members from his apartment.
They were clearly wondering what that all had been about.
"Ah, it was nothing," he said. He wasn't sure if he should go telling them about his new theory just yet. He wasn't even one hundred percent sure it was true.
Once he was done eating, Pestonya addressed them all. "Ah, I hope you enjoyed your meal, honored guests. As it is, the Supreme One Momonga-sama has heard your pleas and has agreed to address your concerns in person tomorrow."
Takeshi resisted the urge to snort at the word 'guests'- they were all clearly not free to leave, so that was just a euphemism for the word 'prisoner.'
"Ah, one thing," Pestonya said. She pointed towards Takeshi. "Please come with me. The rest of you may go back to your assigned cabins."
Takeshi gulped as he thought about a thousand things that could go wrong.