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Thus the Die is Cast – Part 05

Kijima emerged from the Fujinota Future Society office. “Stop, you lousy journalist!”

Ayano jumped and sprinted away.

“That fucking bitch. Think she’s hot shit?”

“Trouble already? Need a hand?”

Kijima turned and saw five men wearing flashy red and blue college jackets. Their facial features were slightly different from Japanese people, mroe reminiscent of people from mainland China.

What to do? Can I really use these guys? Kijima hesitated for only a moment. He had to pull this off, or he was done. There was no other choice.

“All right, then. I need you to catch that woman.”

“Got it.”

Immediately, the men’s expressions changed.

“Haaaah!”

“Hyaaaahh!”

They bolted away. Their jackets flapped, revealing gleaming pieces of metal.

Kijima shuddered. “G-Guns? Nah, no way they would carry guns… right?”

But it was already too late. They were running after Ayano.

---

Ayano stumbled right in front of Silver Face. As she ran towards his direction, her legs tangled, and she pitched forward.

“Waah!”

Anticipating a crash into the ground, Ayano, holding the camera with both arms, shut her eyes.

“Gotcha.”

Thud.

Someone caught her.

“Uh, wait, huh—”

“Keep your mouth shut for a moment.”

Lifting Ayano’s body—where he got that strength from his lanky build, Ayano had no clue—Hikaru swiftly ran, slipping into a gap between buildings lining the shopping street. The pursuers emerged shortly after.

“Over there!”

“Hyaah!”

They sprinted towards Hikaru’s location.

“R-Ru—ngh?!”

Hikaru covered Ayano’s mouth. Despite being right beside them, the pursuers ran off without any sign of awareness.

“…”

“…”

The footsteps faded. The two remained silent for about ten seconds until the men turned at the next intersection. Once they were out of sight, Hikaru removed his hand.

“H-How?!” Ayano blurted out.

Meanwhile, Hikaru’s hand was covered in Ayano’s saliva. “Yuck,” he grunted.

“You should be happy you got a girl’s precious spit on your hands!”

“I’m not really into that.”

“That’s not the point! Actually, why didn’t they notice us? Was it magic?!”

Close, but not quite. It was an ability Hikaru brought from the other world. He had grabbed Ayano and used Group Cloaking.

In broad daylight, hiding from fighters in the other world wouldn’t be easy, but in this world, it was simple.

“For now, let’s get away from here.”

Hikaru and Ayano arrived at a convenience store parking lot away from the shopping street. Hikaru handed Ayano a bottle of mineral water, while he sipped on soda.

Hikaru grabbed her whole face. “How about you explain to me why you’re being chased by those guys?”

“Ow! That hurts! How dare you grab a maiden’s face?!” Ayana darted away, crying.

After that, she shared what happened. Unable to back down as a journalist, she proceeded to gather more information and found a company called the Fujinota Future Society, formed by young people who had returned from the city. It became evident that they were the ones trying to purchase Mr. Doyama’s land, so she promptly took photos.

“That sounds too simple,” Hikaru remarked.

“But that Kijima guy who came to Mr. Doyama’s house was there.”

“What?”

“Look, here’s the photo—”

Ayano checked the camera, but the screen showed nothing.

“H-Huh?! Why isn’t there a photo?!”

“Because there’s no memory card.”

“What?! But he really was there!”

What a handful, Hikaru thought. Regardless of whether there was a photo or not, mysterious men chased Ayano because she was snapping photos. So she was likely telling the truth.

“Forget about the photos.”

“What do you mean by that? Are you saying you can’t count on me?!’

“Why did it work when you took my picture?”

“That’s it!”

“What?”

“You took out the memory card. That’s why it doesn’t have one.”

“Just use a spare one.”

“I don’t have any!”

“Be prepared. You’re supposed to be a journalist.”

“Ugh, see?! That right there! I hear that all the time from the editor that my ears are about to fall off!”

“The saying is you get calluses on your ears.”

“Why does someone from another world know more about this world’s language than I do? You’re Japanese, aren’t you?!”

Hikaru ignored the question. “Anyway, a parliament secretary using land sharks for money seems like an outdated method. I smell something fishy.”

“Huh? What do you mean fishy? It’s got trouble written all over it already.”

“Those guys who chased you earlier… Didn’t their Japanese sound a bit strange?”

“Ah, yeah. I think so?”

Yeah, she was too focused on running away to pick it up.

“And also…”

When their jackets flapped, Hikaru saw gleaming black guns tucked into their jeans’ waist.

“And also?”

“No, it’s nothing.”

There was no proof. Hikaru had never seen a real gun before. Besides, bringing a gun into Japan and firing it was not realistic.

“Anyway, let’s plan our next move.”

“I get it! We call the cops!”

“Of course not. Without a photo, there’s no evidence. What were you planning to say to convince them?”

“G-Good point.” Ayana crouched down, burying her face between her knees.

Yeah, think about what you did wrong, Hikaru thought. This was a nightmare. How could a journalist not secure crucial evidence when needed?

“We should send Tokigawa’s dinner video to media outlets other than Nitto Shimbun,” Hikaru suggested. “If we can’t trust Japanese media, let’s go international.”

Ayano looked up at him with a start.

“Foreign press should have no ties with Tokigawa. So, they can report on it. Once it becomes news, Japanese media won’t be able to ignore it. We live in a globalized world. Doyama will attract attention, and no one will touch the land he owns. But in that case, you won’t be able to expose Nitto Shimbun. They will probably come out of it unscathed. What will you do? The decision is yours.”

Hikaru presented her with two choices: reveal the truth and help Doyama or strike a blow against Nitto Shimbun?

“I… I…”

Ayano’s hands were trembling. Who could blame her? She was being told that to uphold justice, she would have to abandon her own goals.

“I don’t have any connections with foreign media.”

“…”

What?

“I don’t have any connections, so I don’t know what to do! Also, can you stop with your overly complicated way of explaining things?”

“Wait, you were shocked and trembling because of that? Not because you didn’t know which option to choose, but because you had no connections?”

“Yeah, I get it. I don’t have any friends!”

“That’s now what I’m talking about.”

“How do you know so much about Japan’s society, media, and politics, anyway? I thought you were from the other world!”

“No comment.”

“There you go again! Dodging the question!”

Hikaru sighed. How many times had he sighed dealing with this person?

“Okay, so we’re gonna tip off the foreign media. I can help with that.”

“Really?!” Ayano beamed.

“But if we go ahead with that, Nitto Shimbun will stay the same. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah.”

“I-I see.”

It was Hikaru who felt bewildered. He thought her journalistic spirit was being fueled by frustration with her editor and company, but she did not seem fixated on them whatsoever.

“I’m glad I met you.” Ayano gave a somewhat meaningful smile.

“And I couldn’t be unhappier to have met you.”

“What did you say to this talented woman?!”

“More like talentless. Anyway, let’s go to a place with internet.”

They needed to send a large video file.

Hikaru and Ayano searched for an internet cafe, but when they couldn’t find one, they headed to a community center with public Wi-Fi.

The plan was to contact foreign media one by one, reaching out through anonymous tip lines.

Hikaru set up a new email account. While he could understand English to some extent, typing the tip-off text separately was a waste of time. So, he had Ayano write it in Japanese, which he then machine translated and pasted over.

“So when are we getting a response? In an hour? Two hours?”

“We’re contacting mostly Western media, so there’s time zones to think about. It’s midnight in the U.S. now.”

“Ah.”

The video file of the meeting between Tokigawa and the president of Marumigawa Estate was already uploaded to a file-sharing site. Hikaru believed it would be enough for them to just look at it, then turn it into an article.

“Anyway, the die is cast.”