Part 1[edit]
(November 10th – Oahu – Honolulu International Hotel – From the lounge security camera)
A few hours had passed since the Hawaiian Islands had been rescued from the menace of the PMC known as Trident and the magic cabal known as Gremlin. Kamijou and the others had gathered at the hotel the president constantly used for his press conferences and scandals.
Lindy Blueshake was there with them.
Being mindful of the young girl, Roberto Katze turned toward Kamijou and the others to speak.
“Trident has been confirmed to have disarmed itself and surrendered. For now, the problems in Hawaii have been solved.”
“…You look rather displeased for someone with such good news.”
“Only Trident remained,” said the president with a heavy sigh. “Those people who had the power of the occult were among them before wearing the same silver uniforms. And there were a lot of them. If they gathered together, there would be a few hundred of them, but we can’t find any sign of them among the Trident forces we’ve captured.”
Some of the magicians mixed in with Trident had been defeated at the beginning of the invasion, but those had disappeared at some point too.
They must have used the chaos in Hawaii to escape.
Given their numbers and role, those Gremlin magicians almost simply seemed like “the others” who had been helping Trident. They had likely been less closely guarded than Cendrillon or Saronia, but disappearing completely like that was still quite a feat.
That disappearance almost seemed to outdo the impact of the supposed major players like Cendrillon or Saronia.
Those were the enemy Kamijou and the others were faced with.
Those magicians were not just “others”. Each individual one was very different and they had displayed in Hawaii that they could gather together as an organization.
“Gremlin…”
“We only have Saronia A. Irivika and that Cendrillon girl to rely on due to the extra guards we put on them. However, others from the group may try to crush anything or anyone that could give us a hint.”
When had Gremlin withdrawn and where had they gone?
The magic side had its own rules and formalities, but they acted so efficiently it almost made Kamijou forget that.
With a bitter expression, Kamijou said, “And we still haven’t found the other person behind this.”
“Olay Blueshake,” said Roberto Katze with an annoyed sigh.
Hamazura frowned and said, “But didn’t you say no one knows where she is? A search not just through America but across the world isn’t going to end in just a day or two, right?”
“That lady has a lot of enemies. To be honest, I doubt she’ll show her face for over a decade. However, we can use that disappearance to our advantage.”
“?”
The president’s words left Kamijou and the others puzzled.
Roberto ignored them and pointed toward Lindy with his thumb.
“Finding Olay would be difficult, but with this girl’s cooperation, we can strip Olay of all the power that makes her special.”
(Unknown Time – Unknown Location – Unknown Camera ID – From footage with altered video and audio)
“Trident has failed.”
Hearing those words from her aide, Olay Blueshake sighed.
“What about Gremlin?”
“The hotline has been disconnected. They have likely cut off the cooperative relationship from their end.”
“…So they’ve given up on me,” muttered Olay. “The fools. A failed plan or two does not rid me of my economic power. Just leave them be. Later, they’ll come back, crying to be back on my side.”
“Do you have an alternative plan for conquering the United States?”
“With Saronia’s control gone, my control of Congress has crumbled a bit, but I still have plenty of pawns I can manipulate using my control of information for elections. Even If I can’t control a majority, I can still cause confusion. First I create a political vacuum to buy some time. During that time I contact Gremlin or some other organization and make preparations to rebuild.”
Suddenly, something on the TV she constantly left on caught Olay Blueshake’s eye.
Even overseas, Olay usually had some influence as to what was shown on the news, so she normally paid little attention to the TV. She only kept it on to check on the information she herself had created.
But this was different.
The female newscaster was saying something Olay did not expect.
“Breaking news.”
“?”