“I am displeased,” grumbled Nadal Rafthul T’ashsakharington, speaker of Nayuta and a migrant sage. Among all of his equally brilliant colleagues, he was considered particularly ingenious in matters of gambits and guiles. And currently, he was pouting. “Why, oh why would anyone leave the sanctity of our settlement to go roll around in the filth and corruption of Japan? I mean no offense to you humans or your animalistic anti-intellectualism, of course. I’m simply particularly fastidious about cleanliness, you see.”
“We’re well aware that you never ‘mean offense,’” Executive Sakuma replied, cheek muscles twitching in thinly veiled aggravation. “But I would greatly appreciate it if you proved it by choosing your words a little more carefully.”
“I will consider it, though you ask much of me,” Nadal said. “The extent of my vernacular is simply vast, you see. One might say I wield the Japanese language with greater skill than even natives like yourselves. It’s inevitable that my verbiage and phrasing will often escape your grasp, and in such instances, I ask only for your understanding.”
Sakuma let out a dead laugh, somehow managing to scowl at the same time. “You sure do have a point. No way I could ever be as smart as you.”
Not too long ago, the executive officer had been with the Defense Force (or what was left of it, that is). And proudly too. He’d been straight as an arrow and unwaveringly loyal, but now that he was working with Nayuta directly, Sakuma had learned well the value of being able to question and criticize his superiors.
He was a strong individual, both outside and in, and a man of sincerity. So Nadal’s constant, unending snark made this escort mission especially painful for him.
Jurota Shiba, however, continued to drive unfazed. “We’re almost to the prefectural office, Speaker.”
“Very good.”
They’d landed on Shikoku from Wakayama Bay some time ago, and the electric vehicle hummed through Tokushima’s city streets. Sakuma sat in the passenger seat while Nadal monopolized the entire back cabin, donned in his best attire—that being, to him, a hooded robe favored by a society of Force-wielding knights from a famous science fiction film series. Combined with his buzzed golden hair and pointed ears, it suited the cross-world migrant oddly well. Sakuma was dressed in camo and Shiba in a blouson, making for a unique brand of motley crew.
This was actually their fourth trip to Tokushima City.
“Well? Was I not prophetic?” Nadal bragged to the two in front. “In less than two months, I said, Tokushima would abandon hope for aid from the provisional government in Fukuoka and instead turn to us. It was about time that we established a foothold ashore, so their timing was rather convenient.”
“It’s a good thing our reconnaissance went so well,” said Shiba. In fact, he had operated the surveillance drones on that very operation. “Without the settlement’s shipments of relief provisions, Tokushima’s all but kaput. They need food and medicine, so I imagine they’ll be more than receptive to the elves’ instructions.”
“They’re not ‘instructing’ anyone. They’re offering guidance and advice to Tokushima’s leaders,” Sakuma corrected. “Right, Speaker?”
Nadal nodded. “Yes, that sounds polite. Let’s go with that.”
“Speaker! You’re insulting the Japanese people!”
“Save your energy, Sakuma. Really,” Shiba said. “It’s just how he is.”
Soon enough, they had arrived at their destination: the Tokushima prefectural office. Together with the city hall and police station, it served as the city’s hub where most of the refugees now lived harsh yet relatively stable lives. Former government employees and police officers constituted the core of leadership, supplemented by volunteer residents.
The men that Speaker Nadal would be meeting with that day, though, were entirely unrelated.
Nadal took a seat in the meeting room and didn’t waste any time getting started. “Now, to what do we owe the pleasure?”
Shiba and Sakuma sat on either side of him. Across the table were five men, three in Ground Defense uniforms and one in his Air Defense dress blues. The last man wore a plain suit that was probably once quite luxurious but was now dirty and worn.
Nadal addressed the delegation once again. “These are dangerous times to be traveling all the way from Fukuoka. It must have been a trying journey. One can’t help but wonder what it is you’ve come so far to speak with Nayuta about.”
“It regards Three,” one of the officers replied. “We’ve received reports that Devicer Three has returned to your hands. We request that he be relinquished to the government at once!”
“Mhm,” Nadal hummed, narrowing his eyes. “The ‘government,’ you say. Correct me if I’m mistaken, but could you mayhaps be referring to that husk of an organization filled with former military and diet members? The one currently stationed in Fukuoka where the streets are teeming with homeless refugees from all over the country? Personally, I find it linguistically offensive to call such an ineffectual thing a ‘government.’”
“Ineffectual? That’s completely baseless!”
“History shows that many guerrilla factions that seized power in developing countries oftentimes use it to selfish ends, rather than for the good of the nation, ultimately leading to systemic corruption. Quite like you, in fact, come to think of it!”
“You knife-eared little...!” the officer snarled. “You people have no idea—”
“Oh, believe me,” Nadal interrupted. “I have every idea.”
Before the officer could scream something back, the one in the suit, a man of about thirty, spoke up. “You’re absolutely right, sir,” he said with a bright voice. “Fukuoka has done little good for the people thus far. But that’s why we’re doing everything we can to change that!” The young man’s passion shone brightly, vigor brimming from his slender form. It contrasted harshly with Nadal’s stark stoicism. “Which is why we need Devicer Three, Japan’s hero, to come home! So that we can properly express to him our gratitude, stand with him, and rebuild our nation!”
“Do go on,” said Nadal idly.
“Please!” the suited man pleaded. “Is there any way you could give us this chance?”
“Oh, finished? Well then, I could sit here and pick apart all the logical fallacies in your emotional appeal, but instead allow me to establish some facts for the sake of brevity. Two, in specific,” Nadal began. “Firstly, the Mark III Asura Frame is, by right, a treasure of the Elvish Foundation and not the property of the Japanese government. Thus, regardless of the authority with which you speak, you have no grounds to be making such demands.”
The clever sage looked around at the delegation. All had fallen silent. “Secondly, regarding Rudra’s Devicer... Ah, but perhaps you ought to hear it from the horse’s mouth.” He gestured to behind the men. “They’ve arrived just in time.”
All five turned around at once and gasped. They were ten floors up, and yet right outside the window they saw someone hovering in the air, arms crossed and gazing into the room. It was a black and gold warrior. Devicer Three and the Mark III Asura Frame.
“Hm.” Yu grunted emotionlessly inside the Frame. The voice changer emitted the sound in a genderless tone. “Sorry, but the military man was my predecessor. If you’re looking for someone to give orders to, keep moving.”
“What?!” one of the Fukuoka men shouted.
“I’m just a citizen doing what I think is right. A Samaritan, let’s say. I’ll help everyone I can wherever I can, but I don’t feel particularly motivated to involve myself with the army, if that’s all right with you.”
“But you’re Japanese!”
“I’m speaking Japanese, yes,” said Devicer Three. “But what proof do you have of my ethnicity beneath the armor?”
Yu gave the man an icy look under the mask. His outdated and shortsighted way of thinking was made abundantly evident by his assumption that only Japanese people knew how to speak the language.
Yu had been at the floating city Al’iksir just that morning, before shooting back up north to make the meeting. It was supposed to start a little past midday, and according to Nadal, there was a sixty-five percent chance that it was going to revolve around the return of Devicer Three. Fukuoka had contacted them to arrange it completely out of the blue four days prior, so Yu, having already made plans to go to Indonesia, decided he would just double back on his own after traveling south. He’d wanted to see the state of the world beyond Japan with his own eyes.
Ultimately, although it had been a short trip, he was glad he’d done it.
Now that he was back, though, Yu wasn’t excited to be greeted by a lousy bunch of military officers. Sakuma wore an uncomfortable expression, undoubtedly filled with conflicting emotions for his former colleagues.
An awkward air filled the room, until an inappropriately cheery voice drove it away. “This is wonderful!” cried the only man in a suit. “Then, if I understand your words correctly, you would rush to Fukuoka’s aid if a portal-keep were to appear? You would save us and defeat the Anomalies?”
“I fight for everyone,” the Devicer replied.
“Oh, thank you! Knowing that alone makes this whole endeavor worth it!” The suited man scrambled over and seized Yu’s armored hand with both of his own in a melodramatic display of gratitude, grinning from ear to ear. “You’re still Japan’s hero, even if you’re not the Devicer Three we know! There’s going to be dancing in the streets when the citizens of Fukuoka hear this news!”
“Mister Ijuin!” one of the officers snapped. “We have Se—”
The man clammed up all of a sudden, and the one called Ijuin scurried back and grabbed the old soldier’s shoulders. “I know,” he hissed quietly. “But it never hurts to have a few contingency plans in case it gets a little out of hand, does it?”
Unlike Yu’s own ears, the Mark III’s sensors were sensitive enough to pick up every word of their hushed conversation. “Mister Ijuin” appeared to have something of a silver tongue, and he knew how to take charge of a room.
Wait, Yu thought, Ijuin? Like that Ijuin?
Was it a coincidence? Or was he a relative of Yu’s best friend?
Meanwhile, across the room, Speaker Nadal hummed in thought as he spectated from afar, stroking his notably beardless chin. Many elves had light body hair and were free from such facial adornments.