Nicolas Stallone was an agent belonging to America’s Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, who was currently undercover in Japan. He was in the country under the guise of being an agent chasing an international fugitive, but his real identity was that of the head of the special investigative HQ that had been set up in Japan dedicated specifically to investigating the Super Water Sphere Incident. He was a highly capable asset who had proved himself with crucial contributions that led to the resolution of numerous extremely bizarre cases back in his home country. It was because of expectations that he would somehow replicate his success yet again that he had been assigned his current position.
Within the investigative headquarters—which was located in a certain building behind a certain station in Tokyo that had been completely bought out—today, too, Agent Nicolas was having a staring match with his computer with his arms crossed. It was no easy feat discerning traces of supernatural power usage from the seemingly random jumble of data on the screen. However, Agent Nicolas was more than capable of doing so.
“Excuse me, sir. We have letters.”
One of his subordinates walked into his office with several envelopes in hand, breaking Agent Nicolas’ concentration. In this highly advanced information society, the connectedness of everything was what actually made old-fashioned pen and paper that much more useful. In order to find out what’s written on a piece of paper, there’s no other way than to directly steal it. After all, it didn’t matter how brilliant a hacker is, there’s just no way to hack or send a virus to a physical letter.
While rotating his shoulders to work out the knots in them, Agent Nicolas asked, “Any strange ones?”
“No, sir. Three are invoices with this address indicated. One that’s a flyer for a sports club that recently opened up nearby. Oh, sorry I take back what I said; this one looks quite interesting. The sender is...... Ugongo Wa Pepo? The postmark is from the Republic of South Africa. You have acquaintances living in South Africa, sir?”
“Not really, I don’t,” answered Agent Nicolas while accepting the whole stack of envelopes. Then the clock caught his eye. “Oh hey, look at the time. Isn’t it time for lunch? Don’t let me keep you, go on ahead and take your break. Thanks for bringing these over.” With a word of thanks and a little prompting, the subordinate soon left the room. After seeing him off, Agent Nicolas immediately locked the door behind him and closed the blinds on his windows. Then he opened the envelope from “Ugongo Wa Pepo” and shined a black light at the writing paper found inside.
Just as he had said earlier, Agent Nicolas really had never met anyone named Ugongo Wa Pepo before. However, letters sent under enigmatic three-word names... that he recognized. After all, this was the secret indicator for a top-secret missive sent from the CIA higher ups. In reaction to the black light, the real contents of the correspondence showed up in between the lines of camouflage text printed with normal black ink. Although the setup was simple, it was effective. Even in the off chance that this letter fell into someone else’s hands, the large majority of people wouldn’t even think to suspect the instructions displayed in normal visible ink of being mere cover-up.
The directive read as follows, “The well-coordinated activities of the espers give credence to the suspicion of them having a support organization. Moreover, the inference is that this organization and the espers are in a mutually beneficial relationship. Dig into the organizations that had seen abrupt growth in the past few years. The list is as follows: the religious organization Koujin-kai; the criminal organization officially acknowledged by the Japanese government, Tanioka-gumi; the charity school MSK; Kaneyama Tech Co., Ltd.; Guroneko Yamato—”
In the first place, it was Agent Nicolas who had first pointed out the possibility of the espers having a support organization. This was his higher-ups acknowledging that conjecture and listing organizations that fit the criteria and sending them to him as operational orders.
In most cases, investigation was a very dull and time-consuming process. Making big breakthroughs with forensics or deduction occurred only extremely rarely. No, most of the time it was a matter of taking a ton of shots into the dark and hoping something would stick. There were times when they came up with nothing even after thoroughly exhausting all the leads they had. In the same vein, whether or not they could uncover the espers by going through the list that had been sent was very much touch and go.
That said, they were going to go through it, of course. After all, the point was to exhaust every possibility one by one.
Agent Nicolas burned the missive in an ashtray, making sure that there were no eligible fragments left. He then threw the invoices into a drawer and chucked the sports club flyer into the bin. Without thinking much of it, he picked up the last letter—and took a sharp intake of breath.
The name of the sender written on the cutesy pink envelope that had been sent through air mail read “Emma Stallone.” It was the name of the daughter that he was estranged from.
Now, there was no doubting that America was a major superpower, and the CIA was the prided intelligence agency of that superpower. Pursuing the same train of thought, the Super Water Sphere Incident was undoubtedly the most high profile case currently being investigated by the CIA, and Agent Nicolas was the man who had been left in charge of the task force that had been set up in Tokyo for the sole purpose of looking into this incident. When putting all of the above together, it could possibly be argued that Agent Nicolas was the biggest intelligence agent in the whole world.
But with that said, this man was hardly the very model of absolute perfection. Yes, he possessed an unparalleled ability to resolve extremely bizarre and difficult cases that fall off the beaten path. However, he had an enormous drinking problem. Conducting investigations while intoxicated, leaking top-secret information, allowing criminals to slip through his fingers, and causing substantial collateral damage were but only a few of the more prominent examples that marred his record.
His contributions had been so significant that the CIA had still entrusted him with the Super Water Sphere Incident investigation in spite of everything else. But unfortunately, his family did not share the same considerations as the CIA. Due to the discontent that had been accumulating over the years in relation to his drinking habit, and with his transfer to Japan acting as the trigger, Agent Nicolas had gotten divorced eight years ago. His wife had won custody over their only child, and he had not seen either of them since.
The letter currently in Agent Nicolas’ hands was apparently from that very same daughter. His shaking hands opened the envelope as carefully as if handling glass, eventually pulling out a piece of paper that was apparently an invitation to a birthday party written out in childish handwriting.
Agent Nicolas read through the letter three whole times, then nodded decisively. He picked up a red pen and proceeded to X out entire days on the calendar hanging on his wall, almost as if all the plans and schedules that filled those boxes to bursting had ceased to hold any more meaning to him. Then he excitedly went to his computer to book a plane ticket.
Throwing off all the protests from his subordinates, Agent Nicolas finally stepped onto his home soil for the first time in eight years... and his body was frozen stiff with nerves.
Thinking about it logically, he was only going to see his daughter, so what need was there to be nervous? He had even been sent an invitation. It was as simple as just making his way over and seeing her. Or so he repeatedly told himself, but his hands would not stop shaking.
The last time he saw his daughter, it was when she had only begun to speak. Would she still recognize his face? Would she be disappointed the moment she saw him? Could he be a papa who could live up to her expectations?
Unable to bear it any longer, Agent Nicolas went to the closest supermarket, where he bought and drank enough beer to drown himself in. Only after that did his nerves settle back down.
Alcohol had always helped him clear his head. But unfortunately, at times it would work too well and end up clearing his head entirely.
⚔
Upon ringing the bell at his former home, Agent Nicolas’ former wife Sarah came out with a smile. However, that face immediately turned grave the moment she laid eyes on him. “What are you doing here?”
“Because I received an invitation from Emma, of course.”
When Nicolas waved the letter in her face, she snatched it, read it, then sighed. “So that girl has learned how to send letters already...... And who’d have thought that CIA agents could receive letters......”
“Didn’t I tell you before? I can’t send them, but there’s no problem receiving them. So Emma sent this without telling you?”
“That’s right. So turn around and leave right now. Emma thinks that you are a cool CIA agent, all right? The sight of this drunken middle-aged mess that you are would only disappoint her. You really haven’t changed a bit since our divorce, have you.”
“Jeez, thanks for that. Oh hey, Emma! Thank you for your invitation! Papa is here!”
“Papa?!”
Suddenly spotting his daughter coming into view over Sarah’s shoulder, Nicolas called out to her with a full-faced smile. Immediately, Emma lit up like a lamp and rushed over in a half-run. Sarah covered her eyes with one hand and sighed heavily.
“Papa! I’m 10 years old now!”
“Ohh, that’s amazing! You’re 27 years younger than Papa!”
Nicolas hoisted her up and spun her in the air, and her bright peals of laughter reverberated all around. Emma had apparently taken after her mother with characteristically Caucasian features that included a high nose, white skin, and silk-like blond hair. Her black eyes were pretty much the only indication that she was a quarter Japanese.
“I’m going to be a spy one day like Papa! Oh, wait! I made something for you, I’ll bring it down!”