Part 9
(November 10 – Kauai – From UAV Lesser Emperor #113)
Somewhere on the island, a gunshot rang out.
Part 10
(November 10 – Kauai – Northern Off Limits Area of Napali Coast – From UAV Lesser Emperor #210)
Roberto Katze did not shut his eyes even at the very end.
The smell of smoke wafted up and time stopped. In that strange calm, Lindy violently trembled within the half-destroyed monster truck. The nearby gunshot had been quite a shock to her.
However, something was missing.
The smell of blood was clearly lacking.
This was because the president had not been shot.
The gunshot had been a warning shot fired by another marine and aimed at the ground next to the feet of the marine aiming at the president.
The next thing the man targeting Roberto Katze knew, he was surrounded by other marines with assault rifles.
"You're the idiot," spat out one of the marines surrounding the minority.
"Y-you can't be serious. I'm part of the US military, too!"
"Just disarm yourself. Now!!"
As instructed, the man threw all his weapons to the ground. After binding the man's hands behind his back with a cable, one of the marines saluted the president.
"Please excuse our rude actions up to this point. We deemed this the quickest method of meeting up with you, sir."
"Mister, who are you…?"
"I am Corporal Martin Flowers." The marine said while pointing at his chest with his thumb. He then pointed over his shoulder. "Starting from the right, they are Sergeant Elute Lux, Private Xiaolong Harvard, and…"
"I take it I can consider you trustworthy?"
"I could think of no greater honor."
"Thanks for your cooperation," Roberto Katze said frankly. He then switched to his "official" tone of voice. "But prepare yourselves. Right now, siding with me will separate you from the main group. You might even be fired on by fellow American soldiers."
"To be honest, I wish for a strong America that lives up to its name as the world police, and what Presidential Aide Roseline Krackhart and the marine volunteers are doing may be the shortest path there in a way." Martin Flowers then looked the president square in the eyes. "But that is not something we should gain by sacrificing a child who has suffered abuse. In fact, I believe a strong America that lives up to its name as the world police should be protecting people like that. We feel you are the one that personifies that ideal the best and that is why we wish to help you."
Roberto smiled and said, "In so doing, we are distancing ourselves from the easy path through life."
"Perhaps, but we will be the ones to get the last laugh."
The United States had begun to move.
It was supported by those with an iron will that did not allow it to lose its order during a crisis.
Part 11
(November 10 – Kauai – Napali Coast – From UAV Lesser Emperor #300)
Following Kuroyoru's instructions, Kamijou was behind the log house wrapping duct tape around and giving shape to the dismantled and rearranged parts of the generator's transformer and the hot-water heater. As he did so, his cell phone started to ring.
"Birdway?"
"Some progress has been made in the analysis you wanted. That said, we still don't know everything about Saronia's spell."
"I need any kind of hint I can get. She'll be here any second!"
"Very well," said Birdway in a satisfied voice. "The false analysis from the papyrus said she had to use Russian plants, but it seems that that was one of the things meant to lead us astray. That means other plants can be used as the origin for her magic as well."
"Is she really that powerful…?" asked Kamijou doubtfully as he looked around.
Plants were everywhere. They were what supported the entire food chain from the bottom. If she could use all of that for her magic that could control people or make someone's left arm unusable, he had no chance of winning unless he fled to a desert or the South Pole.
"Just hear me out," said Birdway, cutting off Kamijou's doubts. "To be more accurate, the Leshy spell is magic that gives her control over a small forest in Russia. However, an exception can be made by creating an 'enclave'."
"An enclave?"
"If migratory birds regularly come and go through a certain area, that place can be made into an enclave. And the same result could likely be pulled off by putting a pet on an airplane and taking it to the other place. But more importantly, the animal that goes to and from the area must have a magical connection to the local plants."
"…Can you please explain this a little more clearly? What do you mean by a magical connection?"
"The Leshy controls the residents of the forest. The animals are considered a member of that 'society' once they make some kind of exchange with the forest. If she wanted to make some Hawaiian plants into an enclave, she would have to have the animal brought from Russia give something to the local plants."
"Like eating a plant's fruit or dropping a seed caught in its fur?"
"My guess is it's simpler than that. Something so simple that there are almost no animals or plants that don't take part in it. Plants do not merely support the food chain. They have another important role that gives the earth one of its most important characteristics."
"…" Kamijou thought for a second. "The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide…?"
"Precisely. A report said that Saronia has often been spotted in conifer forests. Those are not used for food. If the animals are gaining something from the plants there, it has to be through the air."
"So the animals that create the cycle of oxygen and carbon dioxide within the Leshy's forest become residents of the forest. And when the residents of the forest go elsewhere and create a cycle of oxygen and carbon dioxide with the local plants, that becomes the Leshy's enclave." Kamijou organized his thoughts. "But if she could control all the living things in the enclave, wouldn't we have been under her control long ago!?"
"Didn't I tell you we still don't know all the details? And remember that we still don't know for sure if Saronia's magic really allows her to control people. If she had something that convenient, surely she would have been able to put together a strategy that made her much more of a major player in World War III."
"…Then what?"
"Doesn't it seem strange that she could reproduce the effects of the Leshy, a fairy that rules over the residents of the forest? Creatures with simple brain structures like insects or reptiles are one thing, but what about humans? Perhaps she cannot actually control such a complex living creature and can only switch out how they see certain things or make them more weak-willed."
"Are you just guessing?"
"I am using the people we captured on Oahu and the hostage children in the shopping mall as samples. They seemed like Voodoo zombies to me. Saronia and Olay's goal was to gain the majority within the US Congress and other government and military areas. After getting a certain number using Olay's control of information for an upcoming election, Saronia would only have to manipulate the remaining ones who would not give in so that they were absent on the day of a vote."
"But then wouldn't everyone in the area of effect become weak-willed as well? If so, areas across Hawaii should have been like zombie theme parks or something."
"Like I said, we don't know the exact conditions. My guess would be that it takes time to establish the cycle of oxygen and carbon dioxide. It might take as long as three or four days. A week would match perfectly with the creation of the world, but I doubt it's that long. If it took that long, the magician wouldn't actually go there. Anyway, that would be why we haven't seen any effects after being here for less than a day."
"So if the target leaves that enclave before the three or four days, the spell can't be completed… And an enclave might be as small as a neighborhood park."
"If she knew the schedule of her target, she could probably create small enclaves at each place he or she would go in order to build up the necessary time."
That might be linked to the means of controlling animals and people.
But then Kamijou looked down at his unmoving left arm.
"If those are the conditions, I doubt Saronia would come to the front lines. She can't carry that out without three or four days, so she must have a spell prepared that gives her some kind of immediate power."
"I agree, but I have no idea what that could be."
"I see." Kamijou lightly rubbed his left arm. "Looks like I'll just have to charge in and figure it out as I go."
"Finished!!" shouted Kuroyoru as she attached the "arm" wrapped in duct tape to the joint on her right side.
It was basically a number of metal pipes forcibly held together in the shape of an arm. It did not even have a full complement of fingers.
Dumbfounded, Kamijou stared at the creakily moving arm for a bit, but he finally came back to his senses.
"You only made one? Counting your normal hands, that only gives you three nitrogen spears!"
Even then, the combined force of Trident and Gremlin was slowly approaching.
Likely, they were being extra careful with their approach and continually firing to seal Kamijou and Kuroyoru's movements because those two were from Academy City. Trident and Gremlin were afraid they had a hidden trump card. They were cornering Kamijou and Kuroyoru with bullets so they would reveal what they could do. The soldiers would press farther in once they were sure of their safety.
Kamijou himself was planning to charge in and gather information on Saronia's spell and only then try to find a way past it.
For those that relied on supernatural powers, the amount of information one had could be the difference between life and death.
They were likely more worried about Kuroyoru than Kamijou, but Kamijou had no idea how long their caution would last. If the soldiers saw their lack of movements as an "eerie silence" that would work in their favor, but if the soldiers decided they could not do anything, the soldiers and magicians would pour in like an avalanche.
And amid that hopeless situation…
"I was never intending to rely on Bomber Lance."
"Why not?"
"An Academy City-made arm can move on its own and I could use it as an independent weapon, but we just won't get that kind of functionality out of materials we found lying around. When I realized that, I changed my plan." Kuroyoru grinned. "When you were given that lecture on magic back in Academy City, I was there too. I seem to remember hearing that magic is meant for people with no talent and that, other than a few exceptions, no special disposition is needed."
"No, you idiot. I'm no expert, but magic isn't what you're thinking it is! Unless you're some kind of genius, you aren't going to be able to pull of some amazing technique by adlibbing all of a sudden. Not to mention that espers like us experience a side effect if we use magic!!"
"That's fine," said Kuroyoru. "It doesn't matter what kind of magic it is. It doesn't have to have any real destructive power to it and I doubt I can perfectly pull it off from the little I overheard. That would be like watching someone perform heart surgery and then trying to do the same thing on your own. I'll fail, but that's not a problem. If failing leads to success, that's not a problem at all."
"What are you saying…?"
"I'm saying that I will be intentionally causing this side effect or rejection or whatever it is." With a heavy thunk, Kuroyoru Umidori lowered the duct tape-wrapped arm to the ground. "I'm a cyborg. The extent of what counts as my body is extremely vague. Now, what if I could completely think of the objects I connect to my body as parts of my body?"
Kamijou heard a sound like a hard object creaking under stress.
At first he thought it was coming from Kuroyoru's "arm", but it was not.
"Wouldn't that mean I could force that side effect on whatever object—whatever target—I wanted and destroy it?"
It came from the ground.
More specifically, it came from one of the saw tooth-like cliffs.
To make up for the "magic-like thing" that Kuroyoru Umidori, an esper, had activated, the rejection had appeared in the improvised arm and then spread to the ground beneath it.
As a result, the entire cliff collapsed.
The log house just barely remained behind the line, but everything beyond the line came crashing down. The silver uniformed mercenaries and magicians on that cliff were swallowed up and swept down into the sea down below.
The avalanche was so clear and distinct that it almost looked like some type of thrill ride.
However, that attraction had no safety standards.
"Gah…!?"
"Kuroyoru!!"
Hearing a short scream, Kamijou looked back up from the bottom of the cliff and saw Kuroyoru's small body trembling. The improvised arm wrapped in duct tape had completely shattered and the skin of her other two slender arms had torn from the inside, revealing the artificial "contents".
"Tch…It was too much to completely avoid any feedback."
"Are you insane!? It doesn't look to me like you can just freely cut off the pain!!"
"…I see. So this is insane, is it? Unfortunately, I had the #1's offensive thought patterns artificially implanted within me, so I have some inconsistencies at the instinctual level. I sense danger when it comes to little bits of pain, but I have almost no fear of fatal wounds. I simply can't get used to standard group psychology, so it seems there are some areas where I tend to stand out."
A medical amateur like Kamijou had no way of knowing if the damage had only affected her mechanical parts. However, he felt it would be too much to ask Kuroyoru to fight any more with how much she was trembling.
And Kuroyoru did not give Kamijou time to think.
"This is no time to be looking away. The enemy leader is here."
"!?"
On the lower portion of the top of the cliff, Saronia A. Irivika alone remained. She must have immediately jumped off of the collapsing ground. When she realized all of the PMC soldiers had fallen into the ocean, she gave an order over her radio.
"…to West Napali Coast. I repeat, send reinforcements to Napali Coast! …Dammit, their command cloud has been completely taken out."
Saronia clicked her tongue, tossed aside the radio, looked at Kamijou, and smiled.
For a moment, all was silent.
They faced off, one on one, as if in the eye of a hurricane.
If Kamijou could defeat Saronia there, he would effectively be destroying Gremlin and Olay Blueshake's plan.
"Okay, then!! I'll give you the privilege of playing with me while I wait for my pizza to arrive!!"
"Sorry, but the only thing you're going to be tasting is defeat!!"
Part 12
(November 10 – Kauai – Waimea Valley – From a camera for recording proceedings)
Waimea Valley was a giant valley in the mountainous area of Kauai. The sight of cliff after cliff each dozens of meters high made it a valuable tourist attraction, but it was an inconvenient place to get around in. It was one of the routes that led to Napali Coast where Lindy Blueshake was thought to be, but few roads were made in such a dangerous area and that made advancing difficult when a defensive line had been built up.
Presidential Aide Roseline Krackhart was stuck.
The narrow paths through the mountains were blocked by multiple armored vehicles Trident had brought in. Luckily, the enemy force had been eliminated with anti-tank missiles and the mercenaries had retreated, but the wreckage of the armored vehicles remained. They could not advance until that wreckage was removed.
Roseline clicked her tongue and then noticed the video camera recording her.
"Are you still recording this?"
"I-if I don't focus on my job, I feel like I'll pass out…"
"That camera is cut off from the internet, right?"
"Yes, I switched it over manually. All those kinds of services have been shut off."
"Are you sure?"
"Look, the display says off."
"Hm, fine then."
Just as Roseline took her focus away from the camera, a different worker called out to her.
"Ma'am! Um…"
"What is it?"
"You have a phone call."
Roseline took the proffered cell phone and grimaced upon seeing the string of letters displayed on the screen. She answered it and heard a familiar male voice.
"Hey, Roseline! I thought it was about time I spoke with you."
"I am the one that needs to speak with you!!" Roseline gritted her teeth, thinking that man must have a talent for angering others. "Why have you convinced some of my marines to split off and form their own group!? We were at enough of a disadvantage against Trident. We do not need our chances lowered even further by splitting our own troops!!"
"I thought you'd say that. And that's why I've come to make a deal with you."
"A deal!?"
"I'm not keeping up this resistance because I want the marines to be fighting each other. It was actually a complete coincidence that I managed to get their help, but since I have them, I want to use them to their fullest."
"This doesn't seem like one of your bluffs. How do you intend to defeat Trident?"
"I don't intend to."
He said that so readily that Roseline's mind went completely blank.
Finally, she came back to her senses.
"Wha—What!? You…but…!!!?"
"Y'know, I think you have the makings of a Japanese tsundere, Roseline. You're usually so perfect in everything, but you have no ability to adlib to deal with sudden things you didn't expect."
"Enough with the jokes!! And I think that qualifies as sexual harassment!"
"I guess I need to explain myself. Even if I had not split the marines in two, they would have gotten stuck in a long, drawn-out battle against Trident's units attempting to retrieve Lindy. I am the president, so I have to do my best to avoid a situation where this nation's citizens' lives are needlessly wasted. What do you think?"
"…So you purposefully split my force just to interfere?"
"They are the US's forces, not yours," corrected Roberto Katze. "There are currently two problems on Kauai. The first is the Trident group trying to recover Lindy and the second is you, Roseline. I would like to solve those problems one at a time. This only looks so complicated because I was trying to solve both of them at once."
"Are you trying to say you could resolve this if you had command of the marine volunteers?"
"Even I think before I take action."
"I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I cannot trust what you are saying. I'm going to hang up."
"You trust me that little!? But the people showed how much trust they have in me during the election!"
"The Washington Stream said you had more pipedreams than any other politician but that your crazy ideas might help jumpstart the stagnated economy."
"Just listen. There is a way to defeat Trident."
"Other than Lindy Blueshake?"
"Other than Lindy Blueshake."
Hearing that, Roseline sighed.
She ground her teeth as she could feel her conscience crumbling inside her after she had worked so hard to solidify it.
She lightly kicked the tire of her off-road car and said, "So what are you going to do? We will take it into consideration, so just tell me."
"Thanks, tsundere-chan. First, their source of money is Olay Blueshake. We intend to deal with her master plan by capturing Saronia A. Irivika. Just by defeating her, it will all fall apart. But that still leaves one problem. Do you know what that is, Roseline?"
"…Even if Olay gives up, Trident will not necessarily stop. They are fighting under the assumption that all of their crimes in America will be cleared from them by Olay's political influence. If they withdraw, they will not just be traitors, but unheard-of criminals who started a war with America. More death penalties would be handed out at once than ever before in American history."
"And they know that the world police will chase after them even if they flee the country. After all, former American soldiers make up a good portion of Trident. That is why Trident will not stop and we need to do something about that. If we can just solve that issue, it will all be over. I doubt those from Gremlin mixed in with the PMC troops will continue fighting on their own. If they could have, they would have done so from the beginning. That is why we need a method of dealing with Trident."
"And how do we pull it off?"
"At the very least, it has to be a method that does not use Lindy Blueshake as a shield. That only worked as a trump card against Olay, so it will be of no help against the PMC she hired."
"Again, how do we do it?"
"As you said, the primary driving force behind them is the fact that they will be executed if they retreat. I don't know whether the former American soldiers wanted to get something across to the country or if the reward was just too tempting, but that is the only way we can get them to back off."
"…If you have no intention of telling me, I'm just going to hang up."
"We start with Trident's commander. Or in this case, would it be their manager?" the president said. "Anyway, he must be here on Kauai. I'm guessing either he—just like Saronia—wanted to use Lindy as a means of preventing Olay from betraying him or he wanted to show that he saved her 'personally' to get in Olay's favor. Either way, he would gain a lot. …Also, their command cloud uses even radar and civilian satellites to allow high speed intelligence support. The main server is likely overseas, but the information network the data is being sent through uses the internet within America. That allows Olay to spy on them using her FCE surveillance network and it allows me to interfere with my Imperial Package."
"You know where the commander is?!"
"I have a question for you, Roseline. It would be difficult to defeat the Trident troops deployed across Kauai and the other Hawaiian Islands using only the marines we have. But what if we only had to deal with the platoon protecting the commander?"