ch81-ch100 · 094-ch93

Chapter 93

Gazing out over the sight of 'the bigwigs' filing into a prefectural office conference room, Sadoyama Koji caught himself smiling wryly at the bad case of déjà vu he was feeling.

The conference room in use this time was one size larger than the room reserved back when the request had come in from 'Anthem.' Last time, he'd knocked an assemblyman out cold, and just as he'd been about to beat Sasamori Takeshi half to death, he'd been blasted flying by the dragon-slaying swordswoman and ended up embedded in a wall.

This time, most of those gathered were radiating tension from the start, so there didn't look to be much worry of him snapping at anyone's careless remark — but how to put it: the common sense of the powerful, as a breed, could differ far too much from the common sense Sadoyama carried, and if they went and voiced aloud something they considered "only natural," he might just find himself irritated by accident.

I'll put up with as much as I possibly can, resolved Sadoyama, turning his gaze toward the dais of the conference room — toward the Labyrinth Inspector standing on its single raised step, like a teacher's podium if this were a classroom.

Wire-thin limbs, black hair slicked straight back. A single lock hung down in front, and together with the suspicious round glasses it all composed the look of the sort of man who would never earn anyone's trust. Deliberately, of course.

Being taken for an honest man would be a problem — that was the statement being made.

Don't rely on him. Suspect him.

Habaki Ryo had been that way ever since his days as a mere Labyrinth Agency staffer.

Keeping a clear, deliberate distance so explorers wouldn't lean on him — and yet somehow looking like a man laboring to maintain the very society that explorers existed in.

"Now then — it's time. Let us begin."

Slipping in no thank-you-all-for-coming sort of greeting, Habaki launched straight into it. He was speaking through the conference microphone, and so a voice that betrayed, to an astonishing degree, zero respect for anyone else carried remarkably well; several of those gathered knit their brows in displeasure.

Naturally, Habaki showed not the slightest sign of minding.

"First, the conclusion. Personnel will be dispatched to S City from the Labyrinth Agency, to work with the city's Labyrinth Department and bring the Noumi and Sugai Dungeons under management. For the rebuilding of the labyrinth branch office, the Agency will draw up a special budget. As for the Labyrinth Department duties currently performed at S City Hall — the old Kamioka Dungeon land now sits entirely vacant, and the labyrinth branch office building still stands, so that site shall serve as the provisional S City Labyrinth Office. The Labyrinth Office proper, let us go ahead and build on the former Kamioka Dungeon site just nearby. The Agency will put up the budget for that construction as well. The paperwork will come after the fact — we'll square it all into 'it had been approved.'"

Allowing no objection — no, rather, as if the opinions of the assembled prefectural and city assembly members were worth nothing at all, he recited the decided matters flatly, one after another.

Small wonder the furrowed brows multiplied — and still Habaki took no notice whatsoever.

"At present, the S-rank explorer clan 'Slayer,' having taken over from 'Anthem,' is proceeding with the Noumi Dungeon investigation. For the Sugai Dungeon, there is at present one clan that has volunteered for the investigation — 'Cleaning Sword,' I believe. We'll engage them for the time being, and throw in another clan right on their heels. What matters is settling, posthaste, the range of 'up to here, general explorers may enter as well' — and drawing general explorers into S City."

"Might I have a word?"

"You might not."

Someone raised a hand; Habaki brushed it aside without ceremony.

The hand-raiser stood there gaping at Habaki on the dais, hand still up — but Habaki paid him no attention whatsoever and carried on.

"Moving on. As for public disclosure of information on labyrinth exploration permits, the Labyrinth Agency will issue the official announcements, so S City will be coordinating with us on that. The selection and referral of construction contractors falls under the same heading, as does the development work within the city. I understand there is a department store nearby with NINELINE money in it — solicit investment, and there will be companies raising their hands without end, surely. The steering of the city's development we leave to the governor and the mayor; it is not our domain. The assembly will find the assembly's work quite sufficient, I should think."

Our decisions will not move — so follow along. And if you won't follow, the ones in trouble will be your side, the ones rooted in this land — that was about the shape of it.

In fact, the authority to decide anything labyrinth-related was gripped in the Labyrinth Agency's hands — and over that, even the Cabinet held nothing but the right to lodge an objection. Even the Ministry of Finance couldn't come on strong against the Agency, which managed the labyrinths themselves — the very things that churned out colossal wealth.

If they ever took it into their heads to run wild in self-righteous solitude, then within ten years, probably, Japan would transfigure itself into an explorer-first explorer nation, like certain states in Europe.

The reason it hadn't come to that: the will of the Labyrinth Agency — which numbers many former explorers among its own — had been set solid in the direction of 'maintain modern Japan.' That it had gone so far as to grant a mere handful of explorers, men like 'The Hunter' Soma Kengo, the very privilege of passing judgment on criminal explorers — was to keep this democratic nation under rule of law standing, makeshift though the arrangement might be.

On that one point, Sadoyama's own convictions ran in the same groove.

Water safe to drink; roads and automobiles that let anyone travel far; the convenience store down the street; a modest little cinema or the like; TV variety shows... He had no wish to trade away those things, and plenty more besides, for a world where explorers held favor and ascendancy.

Not that he thought modern society was any heaven, mind.

But — it was a fair cut better than a barbarians' yard where might made right.

"Now, next: the official announcement regarding this incident — the disappearance of Kamioka Dungeon and the mutation of the Noumi and Sugai Dungeons. For the moment, we have requested that government publicity announce 'the cause is under investigation.' Once details are confirmed, something or other will no doubt be put out through the proper channels, but fundamentally, we will not be explaining the details to the public. Labyrinths being incomprehensible things is hardly a development of recent vintage, after all."

"Well, that part's... true enough."

"Amazing, really, how everyone's gone on keeping company with 'labyrinths' all this time..."

"But will the citizens accept it?"

"Some manner of explanation will be necessary."

The air of the room had begun to stir; Habaki observed it in silence for a short while. Having confirmed that in under two minutes every last person present had turned their eyes toward the dais as if to say and so, what will you do?, he opened his mouth in precisely the same key as before.

"For the masses who simply must know, we'll fabricate an appropriate cover story and spread it on SNS. The Prefectural Assemblyman Sasamori who appeared on 'Anthem's' stream made Kamioka Dungeon disappear — but the method is unknown: why, and how — that is roughly the latest information making the rounds out there at present."

"Assemblyman Sasamori doesn't appear to be in attendance this time, though..."

"He has, in proper politician fashion, been obliged to take ill. He is recuperating somewhere far away that nobody knows. That is the full extent of what I can say."

He saw it through with — if anything — a beaming smile.

Sadoyama could tell that more than half of those gathered had felt their livers run cold. And small wonder — in all likelihood, someone in this very room was connected to the Demons. At the very least, someone 'taking orders from a person connected to the Demons' was mixed in among them.

As to who it might be — Sadoyama didn't take his thoughts that far.

Because if he ever drew the right answer, he couldn't say what he himself would do.

An old has-been of a former explorer, retired off the front line — and that was fine.

The situation showed not the slightest sign of letting him be that, but as far as Sadoyama's own consciousness went, that was how it stood. Grinding his heart away on the foremost line — he'd had quite enough of that, thank you.

The remainder of the meeting was a question-and-answer session for form's sake, and Habaki Ryo rode out most of the questions with know-nothing, heard-nothing — which, Sadoyama thought, took genuine nerve. Not as sarcasm.

...Well. Maybe a little sarcasm.

He was surely entitled to mix in at least that much.

◇◇◇

The meeting ended, and just as Sadoyama was slipping into a careless mood — right then, home; after this, all that was left was to wait for instructions from above — a Labyrinth Agency staffer called out to him.

A summons to another room.

Less a continuation of the meeting than a practical working session, apparently.

Figures, he thought. He'd have preferred not to think it, but.

Making his way, with no help for it, to the room he was directed to — not a conference room but a reception room — he found S City's mayor and the prefectural governor seated on the reception sofa, a suited man and woman who looked to be Labyrinth Agency staff, and 'The Scales' Maisaka Risa standing at the room's edge.

Habaki had settled onto the sofa opposite the mayor and governor, wire-thin legs crossed. He showed the entering Sadoyama a refreshingly pleasant smile — and Sadoyama let slip an audible "urgh," but nobody in particular saw fit to complain.

"What kept you so long? Off sneaking a cigarette, were we? You ought to quit, and promptly — dreadful stuff for the health. That body of yours is a precious commodity now, after all."

"I'll live a good deal healthier than I would staring at your face."

At the quip that had slipped out before he could stop it, the mayor and governor shot Sadoyama startled looks — but Habaki, the addressee, merely shrugged lightly and laughed.

"It's some briefing or other, yes? Like that meeting just now — just get straight to the point. It's not as if anyone gets a say anyway. If somebody's got to do it, then until you find somebody to dump it on, I'll do it — can't be helped."

"Splendid. Your good nature deserves far more appreciation than it gets — but quite right, let us proceed briskly. To the mayor and the governor, then: the policy going forward. Eight-tenths of the S City assembly is already in our hand. Within the remaining two-tenths is someone who petitioned a prefectural assemblyman to bring 'Anthem' here. And that assemblyman is, in all probability, connected to the Demons."

"It was part of some larger plan, you're saying?"

The mayor put it into words. The governor still seemed to be sorting matters out in his head — presumably because there was simply too much that needed sorting.

"There is nothing I can honestly say but 'unknown.' Incidentally — that you three are clean has been established, so you needn't trouble yourselves on that score. In any case, for some time to come, the heart of S City will be those two labyrinths. I believe you understand the necessity of coordinating with us, and closely... you do understand, don't you?"

"It goes without saying. From my side, I cannot reach that deeply into city administration. What I can do is set the prefecture's policy. The mayor can move the city's administration, but assembly approval becomes the bottleneck. May I take it that you, Inspector-dono, have cleared away that obstacle?"

It was the governor who answered — sharp, apparently, in a manner befitting the office. The mayor nodded as if in wholehearted agreement. Sadoyama kept his not-my-problem face on, but the effect seemed half-hearted at best.

"Not that I was the one who cleared it away, mind. One way or another, even I have 'superiors.' They wouldn't set foot on the front line if their lives depended on it, and yet their heads alone ride so very high — I'm at my wits' end, truly."

Nobody took up Habaki's hahaha.

Alone among them, Maisaka at the wall murmured "Black," just under her breath — but whereabouts in Habaki's lines the falsehood had been, Sadoyama was quite unable to determine.

"To the governor and the mayor, all I have is this: my best regards henceforth. We'll be sending personnel to S City from the Agency as well — so if there's any pus in there, by all means, squeeze it out. Ten to start with. More if it comes to that — so do get your house in order."

"Understood. And the Labyrinth Department...?"

The mayor, answering on the spot, looked toward Sadoyama with something like worry. Sadoyama had no personal dealings with Mayor Endo, but he knew him for an opinionated intellectual, still young for a mayor. And, if one thing more was to be added: that in his own way, the man genuinely cared about S City.

Strong of ego — but not strong of greed.

Habaki made his round glasses flash — it was nothing more than an unlucky angle against the lighting — and, spreading both arms wide in grand fashion, broke into a slow, oily grin.

"Sadoyama Koji. Section chief of the S City Hall Labyrinth Department. Were you not a former A-rank explorer, I'd have swapped out the actor outright, long since — but by what karmic twist, there is no one better suited than you. Congratulations: henceforth, you are the director of S City's independent Labyrinth Office. On the practical running, consult with the mayor; on the benchmarks, seek your instructions from the Agency; beyond that, do as you like. I, for one — Sadoyama Koji — am confident that you are equal to it. I am attaching Maisaka-kun as your subordinate; do make the fullest use of her."

— That was all.

So saying, Habaki flapped a shoo, shoo of the hand at the governor and the mayor. An attitude beyond all decency — and yet the two rose at once and withdrew without a moment's delay. Considered coolly, it was the sharpest response available to them.

Sadoyama, left standing in the room — left behind standing in it — could manage no more than a wry smile at the thought that he really should have walked out with them.

The prefectural office's hardly-ever-used reception room was unbearably stiff and impersonal; the sole saving grace was that Maisaka Risa, over at the wall, wore a face of pure void. A most disagreeable saving grace.

"Now — there are a few pieces of information I ought to pass on to the director. The first: 'Cleaning Sword' — needless to say, the clan of 'Cursed Blade User' Hayasaka Toru. Kujo Reiko has joined this clan. The application for the Sugai Dungeon investigation most likely originated from her side. I cannot refuse it."

"If you can't, then there's nothing to do but grant it. What, were you hoping to hear me grumble?"

"With the 'Cursed Blade User' and the 'Holy Sword User' traveling together, I'd have no objection whatsoever to them combing the labyrinth from one end to the other, to the ends of the ends — but the Hayasaka Toru in question will, I hear, be away from S City for a time. Taking 'Anthem's' Kagurazaka Chizuru-kun with him — to her family home."

"...Hah?"

"For the formal greeting over an engagement, so the story goes. A lie, of course. That little shit. Behind the Kagurazaka main house, apparently, there are Demons. Different Demons from the ones who were skulking about S City this time, mind you."

"...Right."

"Let me put it in order. The Demons the Kagurazaka shelter behind the scenes — call them A. From within this A, a traitor emerged. Call him B. The one who went about calling himself Cabinet Intelligence and egged Sasamori Takeshi on is the Demon B. Hayasaka Toru has made an acquaintance among the A Demons... the explanation has become tedious, so I'll skip ahead — Chizuru-kun is to guide him, and he is to make for the Kagurazaka main house."

"Meaning B may make a move, I take it."

"Your information is slow. They moved long ago."

"...I beg your pardon?"

At Sadoyama, who had grimaced before he could stop himself, Habaki seemed about to smile — now that's more like it — but Habaki's own expression was stiff enough, in its way.

"The Sugai Dungeon 'Giant Serpent,' and the Noumi Dungeon 'Hydra,' slain by Hayasaka Toru and the Holy Sword User — with those two defeated, two enormous magic cores were recovered to S City. Cores of the big beasts that emerged in the 'Dungeon Rampage.' To the research institute, naturally. They were transported out in top secrecy — and... they've been stolen."

"...This one's... real, apparently."

"What the objective is, I haven't the faintest notion. Nor do I know where the traitor is hiding. I said one is likely among the city assembly — but there could just as well be one inside the government offices. Lending you Maisaka-kun is for exactly that. Use her to the bone, by all means. The 'higher-ups' never show themselves before her anyway — a treasure going to rust in our keeping, otherwise."

"...What a lovely treasure."

"Oh, shut it, will you, middle management."

— came Maisaka's muttered return from the wall, as Sadoyama grumbled despite himself. A monstrous craving for a cigarette seized him — but alas, the entire building was no-smoking.

"Then — 'Anthem,' from which Chizuru-kun is absent for a time: we've decided to have them link up with the other Anthem members who'd gone back to base. They'll be staying in S City until Hayasaka Toru returns. I've no objection to their collaborating with 'Cleaning Sword' in the meantime — but the truth of it is, there is something those girls must do."

"...I'd rather not hear it, but you're going to tell me anyway, aren't you?"

When Sadoyama prompted him on with a be-my-guest, Habaki laughed a marvelously oily laugh, recrossed his legs, and spoke.

"Ilseria-kun wishes to attend kindergarten, so it has been settled that they will film a social-studies field-trip video. They are, as we speak, in the middle of selecting a nursery school or kindergarten. Honestly — at this most absurdly busy of times — were it within my power, I'd happily blow the little creature to pieces. Ha ha ha."

That it's impossible, ability-wise, is the punchline.

Since the occasion was at hand, Sadoyama figured he'd go ahead and laugh along — but he could not laugh in the slightest.

Not that he was especially sorry about it.