Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, Sakuradamon Gate Conference Room.
"The above concludes the report on last night's Operation Spring Cleaning."
"Now, I declare this Operation Spring Cleaning perfectly completed!!"
Standing at the podium as the operation's commander, Kirika Tachibana leaned on the lectern and made her concluding declaration.
As her words fell, thunderous applause erupted from the audience.
Representatives from various factions seated in rows all clapped their hands. Sitting in the first seat, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Daichi Fujiwara finally let out a sigh of relief, joining the curtain-call performance.
After everything concluded, Fujiwara saw off the representatives before finally sitting down, wiping his sweat-drenched forehead with a handkerchief:
"Thank goodness, thank goodness, nothing went wrong."
Fujiwara patted his chest to calm himself while casually flipping through the report in his hands.
Only heaven knew how terrified he'd been last night.
On one hand, he worried the operation might be exposed to the public, affecting his future votes. On the other, he feared excessive losses might make him, the nominal leader, a target for various factions' complaints.
Fortunately, everything proceeded smoothly. The Ghouls were eliminated, the budget didn't seem overspent, and casualties were minimal - truly a best-case scenario.
Just as Fujiwara was feeling relieved, Deputy Chief Secretary Akira Fukuda nearby spoke with a somewhat grim expression to a Self-Defence Forces officer:
"117 dead, 1,300 injured, all Self-Defence Forces members - how am I supposed to submit this report to the higher-ups?"
Hearing this, Fujiwara, who had been standing ready to leave, froze and turned to Fukuda:
"Fukuda-san, what's going on? I heard you say 117 deaths?"
He then checked his report: "This document only lists 17 deaths and 300 injuries?"
Fukuda immediately reassured him:
"Minister, there are complex circumstances here. Let's sit down and discuss this properly."
Frowning, Fujiwara nevertheless took his seat.
At that moment, he suddenly noticed that Metropolitan Police Department Director Ito and Bujin-shū representative Dogen Takayanagi hadn't left either, sitting silently nearby.
As Fujiwara registered this, Fukuda produced another report:
"Minister, this is the internal casualty and damage assessment."
Adjusting his glasses, Fujiwara carefully read through it before exclaiming in surprise:
"The numbers are ten times higher than the previous version? What's happening?"
"Did Director Luo from SDS provide false intelligence about the Ghouls?"
Covering his mouth with his right hand, Fukuda whispered:
"No, Minister. All intelligence provided by Director Luo was completely accurate."
"That's precisely the biggest problem."
"What do you mean?" Fujiwara was baffled. How could accurate intelligence make things worse?
"With completely accurate intelligence, Self-Defence Forces soldiers suffered heavy casualties due to inadequate training and poor combat readiness."
At this point, Akira Fukuda shot a glare at the Self-Defence Forces official standing nearby before lowering his voice to say:
"Minister, the Prime Minister won't like this report."
Daichi Fujiwara let out a sound of surprise. "So, the previous intelligence was meant to hide things from the Prime Minister?"
"Minister, how could you think that?" Akira Fukuda widened his eyes and quickly protested. "How could that intelligence possibly be withheld from the Prime Minister?"
"Then who was it hidden from?" Daichi Fujiwara asked suspiciously.
Akira Fukuda now spoke earnestly: "Naturally, it was to conceal it from the powerful regional clans behind the Onmyou Agency and their vassal races."
Daichi Fujiwara suddenly understood, then pressed further: "Not from the SDS?"
"No, Minister. There's no need to hide it from the SDS." Akira Fukuda shook his head.
The Self-Defence Forces official beside them quietly added:
"The SDS usually learns about intelligence half an hour before the Cabinet Office does."
"Sometimes, we only find out about certain intelligence because the SDS informs us."
"For instance, the actual casualty figures we have now were specifically sent over by Director Tachibana from Nishikanda. The report I received earlier was the same one you saw, Minister."
Daichi Fujiwara was momentarily stunned. "You're joking, right? You're a high-ranking Self-Defence Forces official. You needed Director Tachibana to tell you about your own casualties?"
Hearing this, the official shrugged. "Precisely because I'm a high-ranking official, I need the SDS's help."
He then added wryly:
"Senior Self-Defence Forces officials have always wanted the forces to comply with garrison management, while the lower ranks believe they can manage themselves. So, under normal circumstances, they don't report the specifics to me or the Minister—unless they're asking for military funding."
Daichi Fujiwara blinked. "The Prime Minister tolerates this from the Self-Defence Forces?"
Akira Fukuda smiled faintly at this point and reminded him: "Minister, under normal circumstances, the Prime Minister rarely lasts long enough to even begin reorganising the Self-Defence Forces before being ousted prematurely."
"Oh, right." Daichi Fujiwara suddenly understood, then remarked drily: "After all, my old man served twice, and his longest term was only eleven months. That's hardly enough time."
Having grasped the situation, Daichi Fujiwara now asked:
"So, why are the Self-Defence Forces hiding their casualties from us?"
At this moment, Dogen Takayanagi interjected quietly:
"Because they're afraid they can't suppress the yokai and Vampires."
"But they never could in the first place," Daichi Fujiwara mused, rubbing his chin. "The yokai and Vampires fear the garrisons and the Northern Theatre Command of China, not the Self-Defence Forces."
Akira Fukuda now pointed out to Daichi Fujiwara:
"But the Self-Defence Forces need their common soldiers to believe they do."
"Otherwise, those ordinary people with guns—or rather, ordinary soldiers—"
"Without that psychological reassurance, they wouldn't dare take up arms."
Daichi Fujiwara laughed in exasperation. "They wouldn't dare otherwise? Then how does the Metropolitan Police Department dare? How does the Bujin-shū dare?"
Just then, Director Ito suddenly cut in:
"Because the Bujin-shū can beat those yokai to death with their bare hands."
"Oh, thanks for the explanation." Daichi Fujiwara paused for a moment, turned his head to express gratitude, then asked: "So what do we do now? How will the Prime Minister view these casualty figures when reported? And how should we handle the compensation?"
"If we don't submit the data to the Joint Committee, how can we claim that 50% funding subsidy?"
Daichi Fujiwara never expected that while the issue of 20,000 Ghouls had been easily resolved, they'd stumble at the final hurdle with the Self-Defence Forces. What a mess.
A senior SDF official nearby shrugged: "The Self-Defence Forces won't ask us to handle this. They'll just add these numbers to their annual loss statistics."
"By the way, the actual number of Ghouls currently at large should be less than 200, but the SDF hopes we'll report 500."
"This way, they can reasonably account for losses, especially since future Ghoul extermination operations won't have assistance from the mystic side..."
"They can actually do this..." Daichi Fujiwara was genuinely astonished by this revelation.
Just to save face, they'd go to such lengths.
Daichi Fujiwara glanced around hesitantly before saying:
"So we're just going to cover up for them like this?"
At this point, Akira Fukuda coughed and lowered his voice: "Minister, the SDF can deliver 300,000 votes every election..."
Daichi Fujiwara immediately perked up. After looking around to confirm only trustworthy people were present, he declared:
"After all, we must show some respect to the soldiers protecting our nation, right?"
"Yes, Minister."
With everyone's tacit approval, the matter was satisfactorily resolved.
...
Café LycoReco.
In the back room.
Luo Shu, Meer and Kirika Tachibana sat around a low table, each holding playing cards.
"Three of a kind with a single."
After playing three 4s and a 3, Luo Shu glanced up at Kirika Tachibana and asked:
"How's the follow-up handling of the Ghouls going?"
"Follow-up? What follow-up could there be? It's just about money now."
Kirika Tachibana tossed out three 5s and a 4, then gave Luo Shu a sidelong look:
"Aren't those Ghouls you arranged all undergoing Gene Adjustment? What, running short on funds?"
"The budget is sufficient for now."
Luo Shu waited for Meer to deal the cards while explaining the financial situation:
"Yukino Yukinoshita helped me organise it. The 21 billion yen from the funeral industry has already been transferred. After deducting the 7 billion-plus modification fees for those 35 Ghouls, there's about 13.2 billion left."
"Ohh, I was wondering where Luo Shu managed to get such a donation. So it's from the funeral industry."
Meer played four 6s with sudden understanding, then said cheerfully:
"Need me to clean up any loose ends with the funeral industry for you?"
Hearing this, Luo Shu immediately realised Meer was fully aware of his agreement with the funeral industry to provide Ghoul corpses and fake stolen body cases.
However, he didn't point this out, simply nodding:
"I'll leave that to you then."
At this moment, Kirika Tachibana suddenly interjected:
"Set aside some of that money as a reserve for Ghoul clean-up operations - 3 billion should suffice, since it was promised at the representative meeting."
"As for the remaining 10 billion, we can use it to purchase equipment for suppressing Abyss Artefacts internally, reducing the financial burden on headquarters."
Hearing this, Luo Shu couldn't help but interrupt:
"Wait, I have my own way to suppress the side effects of those Abyss Artefacts. Can't we say the equipment is faulty after I prove myself?"
At this point, Luo Shu said somewhat ruefully, "Leave some milk powder money for the kid. I had to shamelessly extort this from my fellow villagers."
He couldn't bear the thought of spending the remaining 10 billion yen all at once on equipment to suppress Abyss Artefacts.
His Divine Kingdom could perfectly subdue those troublemakers, so why spend money on equipment? Even if it was internal equipment, there was no need to buy it! What a waste of money!
Hearing this, Kirika Tachibana couldn't help rolling her eyes:
"So you do know that money of yours was extorted?"
She looked at Luo Shu speechlessly, then, after some thought, said:
"Fine, if you don't want to spend money on equipment, then part of the originally agreed Abyss Artefacts won't be transferred to you for now. You'll need time to prove you have a way to suppress those damned things."
"Additionally, the originally agreed equipment won't be transferred to you either."
At this point, Kirika couldn't help shooting Meer a look.
Aren't you going to talk some sense into your man? Internal equipment provision is a rare opportunity - you won't get this chance again!
The Abyss Artefacts that descend into this world each have their own side effects, some extremely severe, requiring specially made equipment for suppression.
This is precisely why most of the SDS's budget is spent here, leaving little room for expanding personnel.
There's no choice - recruiting more people means obtaining more Abyss Artefacts, which would easily collapse their finances.
Hence, the SDS can only maintain an elite but small force.
Yet Meer pretended not to see the look, tilting her head as if ready to tacitly approve all of Luo Shu's proposals.
"You two..." Kirika Tachibana sighed as she watched the couple acting in perfect harmony before her. "Fine, it's not me who'll regret it later anyway."
After saying this, she pursed her lips and continued:
"Let's get down to business."
Kirika fixed Luo Shu with a piercing gaze:
"The serious matter regarding that Angel secretary you recruited last night!"