Witches' Gathering

"I'm so happy Blue-chan could join us. I wish I could have served you some tea and sweets, but... I'll send you some next time."

"Fine. I was the one who said I wanted to attend remotely."

On the day of the Witches' Gathering, the Blue Witch participated from home through the Eyeball Witch's familiar.

The gathering of witches who now control the heart of Japan's power structure is now called the 'Tokyo Witches' Gathering.' Originally, however, it was merely a loose association formed amid the chaos immediately following the Gremlin disaster.

The founder was the Eyeball Witch. It began when she created a regular forum for exchanging information with others in similar circumstances, so they could learn what was happening in the world and what had happened to them.

After the Vampire Wizard joined, the gathering took on a stronger political character. Tokyo was divided into districts, clearly defining the territories of the witches and wizards. By reassigning them and distributing them evenly, they prevented powerful individuals capable of maintaining public order from becoming concentrated in one place, greatly improving security throughout Tokyo.

They also established a system for requesting aid from other witches when monsters with which they had bad matchups appeared, created venues for exchanging supplies such as food, medicine, and fuel that were lacking in their respective districts, distributed refugees flowing in from Saitama and Chiba, and gathered engineers and medical workers to plan the preservation and utilization of technology. Numerous other beneficial political decisions had been made as well.

Even when the Iruma Wizard launched a coup, they managed to suppress it despite suffering heavy casualties and succeeded in winning the citizens' support.

However, most witches and wizards knew little about politics.

They were merely ordinary people who had gained power. They could hunt monsters in the simple, straightforward way of using magic to slaughter them, but politics built on complex webs of competing interests was difficult for them.

After the Vampire Wizard, who had coordinated and directed the whole organization, died and left the stage, attendance at the Witches' Gathering plummeted.

Conflicts and friction between the witches increased, and numerous projects that had been underway were halted or postponed.

At its height, the Witches' Gathering consisted of seven wizards and twenty-two witches. Now, its membership had fallen to one wizard and nineteen witches.

Only six of them attended the regular gatherings.

After the Vampire Wizard's death, the Eyeball Witch became the gathering's coordinator. To put it kindly, she valued harmony; to put it less kindly, she lacked decisiveness.

She was aware of it herself, but although she could fulfill a role like PTA chairperson in peaceful times, coordinating a gathering of witches that could determine Tokyo's fate was more than she could handle.

Still, there was no one better suited than the Eyeball Witch. Continuing to hold the Witches' Gathering regularly, maintaining even the appearance of cooperation, and preventing the current situation from getting worse—that was all she could manage.

Since the Blue Witch never left Ome, she had attended the Witches' Gathering in Shinjuku frequently only during the early days after its formation.

This was her first remote attendance since the emergency gathering held in Akiruno City immediately after the Giant Monster Invasion.

"I won't take part in political make-believe. Once I'm done with the foresight, I'm leaving."

"Really? You don't have to say anything. Just listening to the meeting would be fine. I'm sure you'll hear things that will be useful to you, Blue-chan."

"I'm good. Foresight, are you there?"

When the Blue Witch called out, there was a brief pause. Then, after someone whispered angrily, "Answer her! The Blue Witch is asking!" a worn-out middle-aged man's voice replied.

"I'm here. Unfortunately."

"I have only one matter to discuss, and it'll be quick. You were protecting a researcher of the magic language, weren't you?"

"...Are you planning to kill them?"

"Kill them? I'm not an indiscriminate murderer. Lend me the materials they have—the ones on the magic language."

"...Research into the magic language hasn't gotten anywhere yet. What do you need the materials for?"

"What else would I need them for besides studying the magic language?"

"Hah, you never had even a shred of interest before, so this smells fishy! Well, I have no intention of defying your wishes, Blue Witch, but lending out the materials is difficult. Unfortunately."

"Why?"

"There is only one complete set of the original research materials. The copy machine doesn't work, you see. It would be a problem if I lent them out and they got lost."

The Foresight Wizard's words made sense. In other words, these were classified documents that could not be duplicated; casually lending them out would be absurd.

However, the Blue Witch needed to borrow them. She had promised to bring the magic-language materials to Dairi.

"You don't have to worry if it's Blue-chan. She's a good girl who always returns what she borrows."

The Eyeball Witch came to her defense, but the Foresight Wizard ignored her and continued.

"If you absolutely want to borrow them, you'll need collateral: the secret of a major undertaking being carried out by the Vampire Wizard's prized protégé, a project that will one day revolutionize the world. That's what it'll take for me to lend them to you alone."

"Hmph. Fine. Then... How about food and water for a thousand people for a week?"

"That's not even worth discussing. Exchange it for the wand Cureanos."

"Huh?"

A low voice escaped her before she realized it.

The Foresight Wizard had wanted Cureanos from the beginning. He had merely seized the opportunity because the Blue Witch wanted the magic-language materials.

"With all your vaunted foresight, couldn't you see the future where I refused? I told you repeatedly at the emergency gathering. Cureanos goes to no one. I won't even lend it."

"I heard you. But listen, Blue Witch. This is something I've said over and over at the Witches' Gathering when you weren't there."

The tired middle-aged voice gained strength after that preamble.

"If things continue like this, an unprecedented famine caused by food shortages will strike two years from now. Even next year, no one will starve to death, but people will be collapsing everywhere from malnutrition."

"That's why you're pushing agricultural, forestry, and fisheries reforms, right?"

"You really don't get it. Even if everything goes according to plan, it won't be nearly enough.

"Listen. First, you understand that farm machinery has stopped working, don't you? That alone makes production efficiency plummet. Depending on the crop, efficiency drops by 20–75%.

"Food imports have stopped. That's another serious blow. Sixty-two percent of Japan's food supply disappeared.

"Chemical fertilizer is completely unavailable. Agriculture based on abundant fertilizer is no longer possible.

"The roads have been severed, and neither freight trains nor delivery trucks can move. Crops produced in the breadbasket regions can no longer reach the cities.

The average age of people working in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries was sixty-eight. Monsters rampaged, medical care stopped, and heating and air conditioning failed. The elderly were the first to become victims. The people who possessed the know-how for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries suffered devastating losses."

The Foresight Wizard fluently described the dire state of Japan's food production, backing up every point with figures.

The Blue Witch, who had monopolized a massive stockpile of food by herself—or two people, counting Dairi—and had never felt any urgency about the food problem, grew serious.

The post-apocalyptic era following the collapse of human civilization, the age of echoes from the previous civilization and plunder, was drawing to a close.

Unless industries suited to the new era were established immediately, hunger would deliver yet another blow to an already exhausted humanity.

"There's more.

"All of the approximately one hundred thousand fishing boats in Japan have been destroyed. The fishing industry is finished. That's a loss of the 2.5 million tons of annual catch that was supposed to feed three million people. Even all the surviving river and sea fishing, aquaculture, yachts, and boats put together would barely make a difference.

"Even the farmland, stables, and fish farms that have somehow kept producing are being ravaged by monsters. Funny, isn't it? By the time we detect a monster, rush over, and hunt it, the precious food is already in its belly. Deer, monkeys, sparrows—ordinary pests are cute by comparison. The cultivated land in Katsushika Ward was wiped out completely.

"Seed companies literally went under, and dozens of highly productive varieties were lost. It's irreparable damage. You probably can't grasp it, but instead of wasting our time protecting the National Diet Building, we should have protected even one seed company.

Tokyo lost about eighty percent of its total population, and the amount of food needed fell by eighty percent. But the decrease in food production won't be limited to eighty percent. Listen――――"

"That's enough. I understand."

The Blue Witch cut off the depressing explanation, thoroughly fed up.

It had been her own decision to shut herself away alone in Ome and ignore the problems occurring outside, but hearing about the devastation all over again left her feeling utterly bleak.

She had brought down the Giant Monster alone and felt as though she had saved Tokyo, but in the face of the food shortage due in two years, perhaps Tokyo's destruction was merely a question of sooner or later.

"That's why I need your wand."

The Foresight Wizard's voice faded again, as if he had grown tired from talking.

She had always thought he looked worn out, but considering the scale of the problems he was tackling, it made sense.

"We need power. Firepower is fine, manpower is fine, unknown new energy is fine—anything. We need some convenient super-power that can solve everything all at once, right now.

Only two years remain.

I paid a ridiculous price to learn the magic of abundance from the Flower Witch. If you would just lend me Cureanos, I could spread the amplified abundance magic around, massively increase food production, and change the shitty future in which more than three million people in the Tokyo area starve to death."

"..."

The Blue Witch hesitated.

If the residents of Ome were still alive and someone pleaded with her for the sake of Ome's 130,000 people, she would have lent Cureanos in the end, despite her hesitation.

But being told it was for three million strangers she had never met stirred no real feeling in her.

The Blue Witch was the kind of woman who could stay awake for three days and three nights nursing her sick little sister, but who would not put a single yen into a convenience-store donation box.

Perhaps alarmed by the Blue Witch's silence, the Foresight Wizard pleaded desperately.

"I understand perfectly that you're worried about Cureanos being misused. I understand your hesitation, but we absolutely need it. At this point, forget where Cureanos came from. I absolutely won't misuse it, and I'll return it without fail. So please! Lend me Cureanos!"

"The Edogawa Witch lent a magic stone to the Iruma Wizard after being told something similar, and he killed her the moment she handed it over."

"Ah..."

Through the Eyeball Witch's familiar, the Blue Witch pictured the middle-aged man clutching his head and groaning.

"When you put it that way, I can't argue, unfortunately. That brat died leaving behind the worst precedent imaginable... No! I still have to ask! All I can say is trust me, but I absolutely won't misuse it. I swear. That's right, if you want to study the magic language, I'll send the researcher themself over there instead of the materials. You can even hold them hostage―――― No, that's not a good idea. Obviously."

The Foresight Wizard came close to crossing a line, but barely returned to his senses and stopped himself.

The fact that he decided he could not take one person hostage to save three million lives was proof enough that he and the Vampire Wizard had been close.

By the numbers alone, it was a foolish decision, but the Blue Witch's opinion of him rose slightly.

After thinking it over, she offered a compromise.

"I'll also work on a solution to the food problem. I can't lend you Cureanos, but how about we settle on that?"

"You're going to think about it? Seriously?"

"I have a lead. It's not as if I pulled Cureanos out of thin air."

By hinting at her trump card while carefully keeping Dairi's existence secret, the Blue Witch tried to earn his trust. Her words left the Foresight Wizard agonizing over them.

However, the Foresight Wizard could see the future, just as his name suggested. To see the result of his choice in advance, he began chanting a spell.

"Tell me—will next month also be a full moon?"

The Foresight Wizard boasted that he could see the future, but in reality, no one but him knew what he could see or how far his vision extended.

It was unclear what he had seen with that spell.

The Blue Witch had no intention of breaking her promise. The Foresight Wizard shouldn't be able to see a future unfavorable to him.

Even so, the future was uncertain. The Blue Witch asked the man who had seen the future what the result would be.

"What did you see?"

"Seems like it'll be okay. Then that's a promise, okay?"

She was stunned by the slurred voice of someone who had regressed to a small child's speech.

She wondered if someone else was speaking, but none of the other witches, who should have been listening nearby, interjected. Apparently, it really was his thoroughly transformed voice.

"Hey, what happened to you? Are you okay?"

"Eaa~, I'm fine!"

"You definitely suffered a mana backflow..."

The Kindling Witch's gentle voice could be heard soothing the middle-aged man. "All right, let's go to the break room now~ You're a good boy~" The Foresight Wizard's voice gradually faded into the distance.

As the witches who had silently listened to the exchange until then whispered among themselves, the Eyeball Witch's voice rang out, filled with emotion.

"Hey, Blue-chan. Won't you come to the gathering every month after all? It's been ages since I've seen negotiations settle this peacefully. Everyone stated their opinions, listened to each other, and made concessions. Big Sis is getting all misty-eyed."

"I'm not coming again... probably. See ya."

Before she could get tangled up in a messy political drama by continuing the conversation, the Blue Witch cut it short and threw the relay familiar used to transmit the meeting out the window.

The food problem was serious. But if she consulted Dairi, he would surely find a way to deal with it.

After all, he was the man who had managed to create Cureanos, a wand that harbored the power to transform the world.