The Arrival of the Black Ships

"All right? Don't kill anyone. Absolutely no killing. I'm not saying that as a joke. No matter what happens, don't kill anyone."

"All right, all right."

The Wizard of Foresight kept insisting, and the Blue Witch answered in exasperation.

On the day the Black Ships arrived, the Tokyo Witches' Assembly held its final meeting in a reception hall hastily converted from a trading house in Minato Ward.

Four Black Ships flying American flags would be arriving. If they were ships comparable to the ones that arrived in the sixth year of Kaei at the end of the Edo period, their crews would number between 600 and 1,000. Most would be sailors, with only about 2 to 10 important figures actually involved in diplomatic relations.

Japan, by contrast, would greet them with ten people (though the number would of course be higher if cooks, hotel staff, and others who would not appear in public were included).

Representing the Witches' Assembly was the Eyeball Witch.

As interpreter, Ohinata Kei.

As their escort, the Blue Witch.

The remaining seven were honor guards selected from guard units around the country. All wore full dress uniforms woven from spider silk and Steel Sheep wool, carried Wands, and wore Amulets.

The Eyeball Witch had said that serving as the nation's representative was too much responsibility for her and tried to leave the role to the Wizard of Foresight, but it would be disastrous if anything happened to the Wizard of Foresight. The best arrangement was for the Wizard of Foresight to remain behind the scenes while the Eyeball Witch appeared in public.

The Eyeball Witch deeply regretted the absence of the Vampire Witch. For now, she sat in the corner of the reception hall's waiting room, having taken some stomach medicine as a temporary remedy, her face pale.

"Professor Ohinata. I'm counting on you. If anything happens, stop the Blue Witch. It would be disastrous if she killed an envoy."

"Understood. Leave it to me."

The girl with stoat ears and a stoat tail nodded more firmly than anyone else present, and the Wizard of Foresight felt relieved. The Blue Witch grew irritated when she saw that Professor Ohinata seemed to be trusted more than the Wizard of Foresight.

The Blue Witch, of course, had no qualms about killing if the situation required it. Even if her opponent was an official envoy representing the United States of America.

However, in the future the Wizard of Foresight had seen, the Blue Witch apparently killed the envoy out of nowhere during a meeting that proceeded amicably from beginning to end. Once she did, all the American witches and wizards waiting aboard the Black Ships would come ashore, and a war between Japan and the United States would break out.

It was inexplicable.

The Blue Witch was not a random murderer. Whenever she killed someone, she had a suitable reason. It was difficult to imagine that the supposedly soft-spoken envoy of friendship would do something that suddenly made the Blue Witch decide to commit murder.

And yet, it really happened.

They had considered canceling the meeting altogether, but they decided to go through with it in order to discover what would make the Blue Witch kill without hesitation.

There had still been no word even immediately before the arrival, but the Black Ships had sounded their whistles both before entering Tokyo Bay and after entering it. There was no sign of an intention to launch a surprise attack or an assault.

The ships had come this close without sending any advance word, which seemed to indicate that they had no witches or wizards capable of running across the water, sending familiars, or flying through the sky themselves.

As everyone continued their final meeting in the reception hall's waiting room, a messenger entered, saluted, and said nervously,

"Reporting. A boat has been lowered from the Black Ships, and their messenger is requesting permission for the four vessels to dock. They say they are a friendly delegation from the United States of America."

"So they've arrived. Guide them to Piers One through Four as planned."

"Understood."

The messenger saluted again and left.

The Wizard of Foresight once more reminded the Blue Witch, "Absolutely do not kill anyone," then moved to a standby point across the street from the reception hall. The Blue Witch nodded to Professor Ohinata, encouraged the Eyeball Witch, who was pale and clutching her stomach, and headed to the pier to greet the American delegation.

The people who descended the gangplank from the Black Ships were one man and one enormous bipedal rat.

Neither of them made any attempt to conceal the amount of mana they possessed, which no human could possibly have. They were wizards.

One of them looked like a vividly realistic, human-sized rat standing upright on two legs. He wore a sharp suit and sunglasses, and appeared to be male.

The other man immediately grated terribly on the Blue Witch's nerves. She heard the Eyeball Witch gasp beside her.

The man, who looked to be around twenty, had an exceptionally handsome face, with blond hair and blue eyes. If one imagined the ideal handsome young man dreamed of by kind-hearted girls, the result would be a visage as though crafted by the god of beauty himself. His ears were also long, pointed, and unmistakably elven.

The Blue Witch had nothing but bad memories of blond, blue-eyed men with elven ears. Their apparent ages differed as much as a child's from an adult's, but their features were also somewhat alike. He was probably the same species as the Wizard of Iruma.

The Blue Witch wanted to knock him straight back to his homeland, but she forcibly held herself back.

Species did not determine personality. The boss of the Arataki Group had been the same species as her, but he had been completely different from her. If the Wizard of Foresight had insisted so strongly that she must not kill him, then perhaps he really was a friendly envoy despite merely being the same species as Iruma.

The Wizard of Foresight had once been thoroughly deceived by the Wizard of Iruma, who had pretended to be friendly, so complete trust was impossible.

The Blue Witch could not hide her suspicion as she looked at the elf man, but he looked at her the way men often did when seeing her for the first time.

In other words, he had failed to hide the fact that he was captivated by her.

However, the elf man soon came to his senses. After looking back and forth between the Eyeball Witch and the Blue Witch, he hesitated briefly, then extended his hand toward the Blue Witch.

'How do you do? I am Conrad Williams, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Department of Defense's Demon Lord Countermeasures Force. It is an honor to meet you, Blue Witch. I have heard about you from the Witch of Hell.'

'It is an honor to meet you. I am the Blue Witch.'

The Blue Witch could not make out some of the English, but she replied with the stock phrase she had practiced and took his outstretched hand in a handshake.

The words Witch of Hell reached her ears, allowing the Blue Witch to understand some of the circumstances in America.

The Witch of Hell had set out on a journey to help people suffering through hardship. That had been nearly three years ago. She had eventually reached America, where she had probably told them about the Tokyo Witches' Assembly.

It was an unusual connection, but if they had information from the Witch of Hell, it made sense. Without knowing where a survivor community was located, it would be strange for them to cross the Pacific all the way to Tokyo with such precision. The fact that Tokyo had once been the capital of the old civilization did not guarantee that any survivors were there.

While the Blue Witch was contemplating this with Conrad still holding her hand, Professor Ohinata cautiously entered the conversation. The wizard who had introduced himself as Conrad released the Blue Witch's hand and gave Professor Ohinata a brief handshake.

'How do you do? I am Ohinata Kei, the interpreter. This is the Blue Witch, who is responsible for our security and escort. And this is the Eyeball Witch, the representative of Japan's survivor community.' "Eyeball Witch-san, please say hello."

"Y-yes. Um..." 'It is an honor to meet you. I am the Eyeball Witch.'

'Yes. I am pleased to meet you as well. I am Conrad Williams, Commander-in-Chief of the United States Department of Defense's Demon Lord Countermeasures Force. Everyone's English is excellent.'

Conrad smiled warmly. Two of the female honor guards, who had been standing rigidly at attention in silence, could not withstand his extraordinarily handsome features and looked away. The honor guards beside them discreetly stepped on their toes.

'Glenn, it looks like we won't need an interpreter.'

"Good. My Japanese is not very good. Is it okay if I ask you to interpret for us?"

At Conrad's prompting, the rat man in the suit and sunglasses asked Professor Ohinata for approval. His foreign accent was quite pronounced, but his Japanese conveyed the meaning perfectly, and Professor Ohinata nodded with a smile.

'Of course. Leave it to me.'

'Thank you. I am Glenn Grayling, commander of the scouting unit of the Department of Defense's Demon Lord Countermeasures Force. As you have probably already realized, I am a mutant. I hope we can become acquainted.'

'When you say "mutant," should I understand that to mean someone who was originally prone to static electricity?'

'? Ah, my apologies. That's right. Here, you call them witches and wizards, don't you? I'll use your terminology.'

Professor Ohinata and Glenn spoke in low, rapid voices for several minutes, comparing notes on the new vocabulary that had emerged after the Gremlin disaster before going their separate ways.

The simultaneous interpretation was ready, so the group headed for the reception hall with the honor guards leading the way.

The sidewalk had been cordoned off with traffic cones and rope, while the guards sternly monitored the gawkers jostling one another to see the American delegation.

Conrad and Glenn amiably waved back at the people. Whenever Conrad waved, women let out shrill cheers, while Glenn's wave elicited an enthusiastic roar from part of the crowd.

The group reached the reception hall without incident and immediately began the meeting in a small, well-soundproofed conference room.

The American and Japanese representatives sat facing one another across a table, and after a few simple social formalities, the meeting began.

'I have heard about the Tokyo Witches' Assembly from the Witch of Hell. I understand that it is a large survivor community containing many extraordinarily powerful individuals. I had heard about you, but now that I have actually visited, I can see that the reality exceeds the stories. We would very much like to enlist your help.'

'Conrad. Before we get to that...'

'Ah, that's right. To demonstrate our friendship, we have prepared a gift. It is not meant as an advance payment, so please accept it without hesitation.'

As Conrad spoke, an enormous box suddenly emerged from Glenn's belly pouch. Glenn opened the lid and revealed the silver ingots packed inside.

'There are five tons of silver and two tons of platinum. You must have many uses for them. I hope they prove useful.'

'I see. Thank you very much.'

'...?'

The Eyeball Witch was bewildered to receive precious metals as though they were some magnificent treasure, but she thanked him out of courtesy.

Glenn was also confused by the subdued reaction from the Japanese side, but the presentation had at least been completed. Japan, in turn, presented them with Wands, a cage containing a Golden Hawk and a Gremlin for implantation, a coat made from Daidarabotchi hide, and magical sleeping medicine that allowed the user to dream of anything they wished.

The American delegation seemed particularly interested in the Wands. However, they set the exchange of gifts aside for the moment, and the American side began explaining their circumstances.

The president had survived the Gremlin disaster in America. However, a prominent official who had served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development had awakened as a wizard, and that person became the new president. Exercising powerful leadership, the new president led a mass migration of survivors from the East Coast, centered on New York and Washington, D.C., to the Great Plains in the center of the American continent.

The Great Plains was America's greatest breadbasket, and it was able to support an enormous survival zone with a population of 4.5 million.

There were two witches in the military, one of whom belonged to a species capable of high-speed flight in the flesh, so messengers spread across the entire United States. As many as 88 witches and wizards gathered in the name of the president, ultimately forming a stable, enormous survivor community.

One part of the Great Plains, the state of Texas, also had oil fields.

Humanity had lost electricity, but oil resources remained just as important as ever.

The revival of old technologies that did not use electricity progressed rapidly. Shipyards built steamships, and steam locomotives ran along the railways.

Several states refused to obey the new government and declared independence, and riots broke out several times, but America largely remained united and rebuilt the collapsed world at a tremendous pace under the slogan "Great America Again."

The calamity that would destroy that great America appeared a year and a half ago.

That AA-class monster—the Class A-1 monster, as Japan called it—was abnormally powerful and displayed abnormal behavior.

Rather than acting on instinct like an animal, it displayed an intellect far too advanced for a monster, comparable to that of a human, and attacked witches and wizards.

It mastered "tactics," including surprise attacks after concealing its mana and going into hiding, as well as diversions using other monsters.

Furthermore, whenever it defeated a witch or wizard, it absorbed them and grew stronger. It also showed a habit of greedily collecting magic stones, and the already mighty AA-class monster quickly became impossibly powerful.

It was a monster possessing every one of those abilities—mana, durability, attack power, and speed—even though any one of them alone would have been a threat.

America had developed Wands as well, and the Transcendents took up their Wands and bravely fought the unique AA-class monster that came to be called the Demon Lord. However, the battlefront was gradually pushed back.

The Demon Lord showed an obsession with absorbing magic stones, witches, and wizards. A large-scale military operation using magic stones as bait had once dealt it a heavy blow, but the Demon Lord completely recovered in only a few days.

As magic stones were stolen and the Transcendents absorbed, America's forces were whittled away, and the Demon Lord grew stronger by the same measure.

If the magic stones and Transcendents disappeared, America would lose its means of resisting the monsters and be destroyed.

The Demon Lord showed no interest in ordinary humans, instead relentlessly targeting magic stones and Transcendents. That was a saving grace, in a sense, but even if only humans survived, they would eventually be crushed by monsters other than the Demon Lord and perish all the same.

The one who saved America, which had been fighting one desperate retreat after another, was a Japanese witch who came from the north by land through Alaska and Canada.

In other words, the Witch of Hell.

The Witch of Hell had traveled around helping isolated survivor communities throughout the world, and she possessed a wealth of magic learned from the Transcendents of each region. Her wide-area annihilation magic, which she could chant simultaneously with her three mouths, gained tremendous destructive power from the synergy among the three incantations.

In the battle against the Demon Lord, the Witch of Hell did the work of more than three people by herself.

But more impressive than anything else was the wand she carried: Hariti, the Mobius Looping Staff.

Thanks to Hariti, America also managed to discover magic letters.

The American military developed ways to use magic letters and dramatically increased its combat strength, beginning to push the Demon Lord back instead. Establishing tactics that completely avoided the absorption of magic stones and Transcendents was also a major factor.

When the Demon Lord realized that the balance had turned against it, it disappeared into the Rocky Mountains.

The Class A monster anomaly occurred after that.

Somehow, the Demon Lord was able to infect other monsters with the Black Gremlin it possessed. Monsters that generated a Black Gremlin inside their bodies gained the same ability to accelerate time as the Demon Lord.

And when the Black Gremlin grew larger than the monster's original Gremlin, the monster came under the Demon Lord's control.

The Demon Lord infected powerful monsters throughout the world with Black Gremlins and summoned them to its location.

The end of America had come.

The Demon Lord appeared once more with an army of powerful monsters in tow and destroyed America's survivor communities in an instant. It stripped them of every magic stone and absorbed the witches and wizards who failed to escape in time.

The survivors fled the Demon Lord with their lives barely intact and established a government-in-exile in Cuba.

At present, America is a monster paradise ruled by the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord displayed an abnormal obsession with absorbing magic stones and Transcendents. Conquering America would not satisfy it.

If left alone, it would continue growing stronger and stronger.

This was not a crisis affecting America alone.

It was a crisis for the entire world.

The government-in-exile had found hope in Japan through the Witch of Hell's account.

Foresight magic. Wands. The Dragon Witch and the Blue Witch, who were said to be even stronger than the Witch of Hell.

If they could obtain Japan's cooperation, defeating the Demon Lord might still be possible.

If they could not defeat the Demon Lord, the world would end, so this was not someone else's problem for Japan, either.

That was why America wanted to borrow Japan's strength at any cost.

For that purpose, America had sent its prized steamship and staged a second arrival of the Black Ships.

The Japanese representatives fell silent in shock after hearing America's circumstances.

The mystery surrounding the Class A monsters had been solved.

However, their worst-case scenario—that the world might be destroyed—had been revised upward to the worst possible outcome: the world would be destroyed.

That alone was shocking, but there were far too many other unsettling and inexplicable elements.

They now had more questions than answers.

Although the subject matter of the meeting was ominous, the atmosphere remained gentle and amicable. They could not imagine what situation could possibly lead to the Blue Witch killing the envoy.

They also did not understand the purpose of the gifts. What were they supposed to use the silver and platinum for?

What did it mean that "America had also managed to discover magic letters"? Japan had not discovered magic letters yet. Did that mean a third country, neither Japan nor America, had already discovered them?

"...Where should I even start? There are too many things I want to ask."

At the Eyeball Witch's mutter, the Blue Witch nodded.

Professor Ohinata, who had been pretending to remain calm while continuously wagging her tail ever since magic letters had been mentioned, also nodded gravely.

The meeting looked like it would continue for quite some time.