Shin Inukkami! ~Master of the Highest Edition~ - The Spirit Quelling Bureau's Bewilderment

Whether he was a lame duck (a politician on his deathbed) or the most hated man in history, the President of the United States—Japan's greatest ally—was coming to visit. The preparations on the receiving end were tremendously grueling. The Cabinet Office, headed by Prime Minister Mibuchi Sanetomo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs serving as the de facto point of contact, the Ministry of Internal Affairs coordinating with all relevant agencies, and the Metropolitan Police Department handling security—all spent their days in utter chaos over this visit that had everyone asking, "Why so sudden?!" For reasons unknown, major media outlets in both America and Japan ran article after article about this visit that didn't feel particularly important at all, and naturally the public mood got swept up in it too. Still, they somehow managed to coordinate the schedule, secure the venues, and prepare a full package of safe, inoffensive events for the President's three-day, two-night stay—talks and a banquet at the State Guest House, a welcome ceremony, a Japan-U.S. summit with relevant cabinet ministers, a press conference, golf at a prestigious course, a sushi dinner at an ultra-high-end restaurant, and so on. After all, there were no particular topics to discuss, and it was a meeting with virtually no political significance. Under these circumstances, the formality of it all was simply unavoidable. While there was some dissatisfaction with the American side's high-handedness, the various ministries and agencies, drawing on their wealth of past experience, managed to prepare with relative smoothness. The sole exception was the Metropolitan Police Department's Security Bureau, which had sole responsibility for the President's safety during his stay in Japan. They had obtained information—unconfirmed and uncertain—from the Defense Intelligence Agency under the U.S. Department of Defense (not from the CIA or FBI), that could not be ignored. Namely: "During the visit, there is a risk that the President's life will be targeted." Upon receiving this report, Senior Superintendent Matsumura, head of the Security Bureau's Protection Division, took command at the forefront, implementing警戒 protocols stricter than ever before while simultaneously launching thorough intelligence gathering. That was the story of the surface world. Meanwhile, in the underworld. The Spirit Quelling Bureau, which secretly and from the shadows maintained Japan's spiritual public order, received information with one additional phrase attached. That phrase was: "The President's life is being targeted. Likely by curse, spiritually." The one who delivered this notice was "FEARS," a counter-curse unit secretly existing under the U.S. Department of Defense. It was the American counterpart to the role the Spirit Quelling Bureau played in Japan. However, whereas the Spirit Quelling Bureau was a chimera-like organization (fitting, in a way) whose overall structure and chain of command remained unclear even to special spiritual investigators like Kana Shiro, "FEARS" differed considerably in character—though its existence was camouflaged as a division of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, it was a bona fide part of the military, and all its members were soldiers with ranks. Also, unlike the members of the Spirit Quelling Bureau who rushed about regardless of the scale of incidents to maintain Japan's spiritual public order, "FEARS" in principle only commenced operations in cases where high-difficulty, wide-area spiritual disturbances were foreseen. Basically, the American government's policy was to leave all small-scale, individual-level spiritual disturbances to the private sector. Even so, America was a vast country. Cases occurred with some regularity on a grand scale—a near-mass zombie outbreak that almost destroyed a town in Illinois, a case where a Mesopotamian evil spirit sealed in an excavated urn hijacked multiple Amtrak buses and tried to crash into an elementary school, and even the arrest of a madman who wrapped himself in a stolen Shroud of Turin and proclaimed himself "Jesus Super Hero" (which ultimately escalated into a major international incident involving the secret agencies of the Vatican, Italy, and England). For this reason, "FEARS" maintained its headquarters in "Justice Fort," a fortress in the sky, and kept itself in a state of constant readiness to rush anywhere domestically or even internationally at a moment's notice. Though Kana Shiro had never seen it with his own eyes, it was apparently a medieval European castle remodeled with sorcery, equipped with a computer that had undergone a sacred-spiritual mutation via lightning, and possessing the movement speed of a jet aircraft—a flying frontline command center. He had heard, however, that it was simultaneously a structure overflowing with the occult and a military base fully equipped with state-of-the-art intelligence-gathering systems and network functions linking it to every branch of the military. His honest impression was: as expected of America—large in scale, and for better or worse, highly rational. And while "FEARS" and the Spirit Quelling Bureau had maintained their relationship through gentle information exchanges up until now (the organizations being similar yet fundamentally different in both their founding circumstances and purposes), with President White's visit to Japan this time, they suddenly made contact with the Spirit Quelling Bureau, providing ominous intelligence and requesting cooperation. Their demand was: "We request that you assemble and deploy Japan's highest-ranking spiritualists for the President's protection and the capture of the perpetrators." It was a considerably demanding request. The Spirit Quelling Bureau, while perplexed by this unprecedented order that felt somewhat coercive, secretly coordinated with the Japanese government, sought the approval of those with decision-making authority, and accepted the establishment of a cooperative framework with "FEARS." Then Kana Shiro and several other special spiritual investigators rushed about and approached the following five individuals for cooperation: The Golden Gamito, who could shatter a mountain with a single fist and even stop a magma eruption. The blind onmyoji Miwa Renpu, who could subdue sea dragons with ease. The earthquake-user Kumoshima Yuran, known by the alias "Catfish Princess." And the one hailed as the greatest, strongest, and most powerful of the current era—the super-giant spiritualist "Big Kaiser" Yuzuki Marogoro, who commanded two hundred subordinates beneath him. And though a slight step down compared to those four, Kawakami Kaoru, who at a young age had inherited the headship of the prestigious dog-spirit-user Kawakami family and was currently the most rapidly growing. It was, at present, the finest roster of candidates conceivable. Certainly, in terms of sheer ability, there were others recognized as being in the monster class alongside those five—the eccentric of the Amakusa family, "The Lady," the collector of legendary and cursed blades from East and West, Jingi Hajime, and the young genius who dyed the skies over the entire Kanto region gold, Tōhō Koume. However, at the same time, these three had a reputation for willful and outrageous behavior, and in a case like this, they would lack cooperativeness and could even be dangerous. The Spirit Quelling Bureau had conducted negotiations taking into account not only combat ability but also character and cooperativeness. Yuzuki Marogoro, Gamito, Kumoshima Yuran, Miwa Renpu, Kawakami Kaoru. If even one of these five accepted the request, nothing could be more reassuring. Yet despite all the Spirit Quelling Bureau's efforts, there was no notable communication from "FEARS" afterward. Even when the Bureau pressed them, their responses were vague and noncommittal, and finally the day arrived—three days before the President's visit. At this point, what kind of security framework should be established? In what form should the Japanese side cooperate with the American side? And fundamentally, on what basis had "FEARS" sensed danger to the President? None of the source information had been shared at all. Seventy percent anger, thirty percent bewilderment. Many of the Spirit Quelling Bureau's staff were thinking: "They're the ones who brought this to us—so why won't they share the information? Isn't the whole idea of a threat to the President's life just a hoax in the first place? Aren't they just in too deep now and staying quiet because they can't back out?" The overall atmosphere was beginning to turn to suspicion and paranoia. But amid all this, only Kana Shiro had begun to feel a clear sense of unease. Something tremendously terrifying was secretly in motion. He sensed such signs through his skin, from years of experience. And just as he was about to bring his concerns to his direct superior, the Bureau Chief, coincidentally an invitation came from the other side: "Chiro. I need to speak with you. Just the two of us." At dusk, Kana Shiro got into a black limousine in front of the government district. The Bureau Chief was already seated in the back, and upon seeing Kana Shiro, he let the faintest smile cross his lips. Then: "Drive on." He commanded the driver in a somewhat haughty voice. "Sure thing." The driver responded in a strangely high-pitched voice. With that, the ornate vehicle glided forward silently, as if sliding. Through the window glass, the buildings and the people passing by were dyed deep crimson in the hues of the twilight hour—the time when demons roam.

日本語

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Episode 5

Name: Shin Inukkami! ~Master of the Highest Edition~
Author: Novelia

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