Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Fan Fiction ❯ My Magical Gate Experience Was Ruined, As I Expected ❯ YGS: 10 ( Chapter 10 )

[Komachi/Tanya]

I managed to score a coffee and a fresh croissant and some truffles while waiting on the inevitable interrogation from what was probably national intelligence services. This was going to get very complicated very quickly. Taishi was probably very worried once he saw me on TV. And my phone rang. Speak of the Devil and he shall appear.

“Hello Dear. Yes, I’m fine.” I talked to my young husband and calmed him somewhat. “Yes, Batou is here, and Yukino. And Saki. Looks like he finally worked up the nerve and she said yes. We’ll need to get a wedding planner this time. I suspect that there’s going to be too much going on to put the proper effort into it. Yes, I’m sitting at Otherworlds Manga, and its about 40 feet from ground zero. Yes dear. No, they won’t keep me from coming home if I want to leave. No, they really can’t. Ah, Yukino’s parents are here. Marvelous. And they have bodyguards, looks like quite a few armored vehicles and turret guns. Well, I’ll call you back later. Can you see about getting some fried chicken on the way home? Yeah, that one. With the crispy skin. I’m in the mood for some reason.” I ended the call and found Batou and Saki holding hands while she quietly shook from battle fatigue. Batou wasn’t shaking. I’d wondered if maybe he was a reincarnate. I think this confirmed it. My brother called my phone. I sighed and picked up.

“What did you do?” he shouted. I pulled the phone away from my ear and counted to five before putting it back.

“I’m fine, just tired.”

“I’ve been arrested under suspicion of treason,” Hachiman shouted in outrage from the other end of the line.

“Really? The officer who gave that order has a career measured in minutes. Yukinoshita’s parents are here. I’ll have a word with them. Where are you?” I asked. He told me the base and the CO throwing his weight around. Niisan was in the intelligence services which worked with the diplomatic corps. He still wore his uniform, but his 108 skills in plainclothes helped him vanish into the background almost as well as my SEP field on low power.  

“Visha? Yukino. Let your parents know that some Colonel at Narashino arrested my brother on suspicion of being related to a magical girl. Fix it.” She looked disturbed and eyed her thunderous mother glaring at her, at her father glowering at the various troops and the photographers everywhere, like locusts, filming the gate, the wreckage, the bodies, and EMTs being escorted forward.

Various work trucks were clearing a path into the gate, mostly CBs with semi-armored heavy equipment from the JSDF reservist base. Every monster dragged out into the light got a lot of attention. I never fought against stuff like this in the Great War. It still died like anything else. Most was easier to hit than a flight mage, at least.

I can’t believe I held off an invading army of primitive screwheads with parked cars, rubble bomb spells, and shields to redirect burning gasoline. It was all I had, and I felt so angry to be there, unarmed. In Germania I always carried my rifle everywhere, even to classes at the War college. I still want a rifle. Not sure if I want a .308 or 8mm autorifle or one of the local Howas.

I don’t like the Type 64s. During development, the Japanese discovered that recoil from a full power .308 was uncontrollable in a select fire weapon, something the Americans worked out decades earlier with their M-14 project. The Americans shelved their rifle and came up with something better, the AR-15. Apparently, Japanese machismo required them to ignore evidence and discovered it was too much recoil for Japan, too. So they lightened the recoil by reducing the powder load by half, and since it was half the powder, the bolts, which locks the barrel closed for firing were lightened and weak, using inferior heat treating and quality control. The Japanese 7.62 is equivalent to a 7.62x39 Soviet round in power, which has a rainbow trajectory by the time it passed 200 meters. A full power 7.62 NATO round would make a Howa literally shear apart and explode like a grenade. The person aiming it has the action next to their throat, so firing a full power NATO-spec round, or using magic to enhance power on a round during battle conditions would be a suicidal act.

All this happened because of the typical Japanese corruption. Bribes and kickbacks at work to cripple the essentially “joke” status of the JSDF, though I never let my brother or Batou hear that from me. The Type 99 has been described universally as “Not Ready For War”, being a homegrown variation on the AR-18 Armalite rifle, only inferior in every way to a modern M4 like the Americans had been using in Iraq for 15 years. My Mondragon Sig Saur used ammo rarely seen in this world, and only in Switzerland. Most modern militaries were using 5.56 NATO, and a few had rifles chambered in 7.62x51mm NATO, which was analogous to the Sig, but too powerful for the Howa 64s. With my size and weight and the weight of ammo in consideration, something like an M4 or HK416 or a SCAR-L would do better. Maybe even a SCAR-H so I could swap ammo types in the field. Resupply looked to be a serious issue on the far side of the gate, probably. The caliber wasn’t as important as the range. I was casting spells on the bullet anyway. It was a delivery system for the spell. Good long range accuracy would matter. More spells to develop with my crystal, and more code to write and perfect for use in battle.

“So, you are the one who has lead my Yukino astray?” accused a piercing middle aged female voice. I looked up from my musings and coffee to see the elder Yukinoshita.

“Your little girl is a hero today. You should be very proud. We saved Japan from invasion, and she’s on the 5 o’clock news. Think of all the votes this will buy you,” I replied evenly, going for the high ground. I was vaguely aware that there had been attempts at omiai meetings, which had not gone well, and Yukino would storm out of them coldly furious with her family’s idea of what a proper husband should be.

More trucks moved around and I could see the hole was largely cleared. A column of tanks advanced. Not APCs, but actual main battle tanks. The tankers were on top of their machines, flipping the light covers off so they could be turned on. It looked like they would advance down the tunnel to the other side. Presumably there was an “other side” like this one. Ah, a wheeled drone. Looks like the JSDF recon broke out their ATV. And a directional antenna for a high speed data link, wirelessly. Good. People are starting to use their brains.

A trooper finished setting up the drone and then pulled down his viewing hood and it started to move past the workmen and the two heavy gun tripods. When had those arrived? Probably while I was sipping coffee and trying to regain my strength. The mana continued to flow through like a river, probably spreading out into our world. I wonder if there are other women like us, reincarnates with magic?

Yukino finished speaking to her father, who made a phone call and after a conversation with someone on the other end, handed it over to his daughter. Yukino’s mother continued to tap her foot, glaring at me. I’d been glared at by generals and hunted by entire battalions of mage-killers. I’m still… okay not still there. The sniper got me, but I survived the war at least.

I can feel a shitstorm about to land, and I’m standing at ground zero. I had nothing to do with this Gate showing up, but some clown will claim it was my fault, or a conspiracy by magical girl aliens, and then they’ll wave their tinfoil hats at me, and the other side will start chanting Bentora Bentora, Space People!”

More seriously? There is going to be an inquiry, probably in front of the Diet, and probably hearings to shift blame around, and some of it will end up public and televised. I’m going to be famous, for the first time since I was born in this life. And some of what I had to tell the inquiries will remain secret, which will upset the conspiracy theorists even more.

After a good fifteen minutes of foot tapping and glaring Mrs. Yukinoshita, in full kimono and full dudgeon threw her hands up in the air and stormed off to insult her husband and glare at Yukino for being an improperly demure war machine. I couldn’t be more proud. I have the best subordinates.

My phone rang. It was Yui. She was worried.

“Yui, dear. How are you feeling today?” I asked, derailing her panic attack. Yui was pregnant, probably the result of her attacking niisan. They had a fairly hilarious marriage. She still couldn’t cook half of what she tried, but Hikigaya wasn’t always home, depending on the needs of his work for the JSDF. Intelligence officers in peacetime kept pretty regular hours. Peacetime was over, so he’d be working late a lot, which would probably ramp up her anxiety and produce a child who screamed a lot. I couldn’t have a niece or nephew who ended up like me in my first two lives: damaged. Nope, I was going to have to handle this.

“Hikki isn’t answering his phone and there’s news in Shinjuku and was that Yukino? There’s lots of videos. Was that Yukino? It looked like Yukino,” she babbled in semi-panic.

“I’m with Yukino right now. There’s been some strange events here. Don’t answer the door to any strangers, okay? Especially not people with big TV cameras and bright lights,” I recommended. I would see about asking my sister in law to come over, my other one. Saki’s younger sister. If Taishi could spare her instead of having his own panic attack.

“I got Yukino to help clear things up with Hikigaya’s CO, so hopefully you’ll hear from him soon. I suppose that’s good news. I think, however, that she and I will be on TV soon, and I don’t like that much.”

“What? Why?”

“Yukino wasn’t the only one fighting. Me and Batou were here too, and Saki is safe. He finally asked her and she said yes. Are you available to help with the wedding planning? I think they’d like it to be soon.” That worked. She took the distraction and hung up, then I heard Saki’s phone ring and Batou gave me a look of gratitude as the stress was derailed there. Better people skills this life. Its amazing how having a proper diet and normal hormone balance gives you sufficient empathy to notice stuff beyond your own immediate survival.

There were a lot of bright lights outside, and it wasn’t tanks this time. Those were advancing now, and the lights seemed to be from TV crews. There was a TV up over the counter and it kept showing images of the war I’d fought here… was it only two hours ago? It was still hot as hell. It would switch back to some of the talking heads standing in front of the wreckage with the Gate in the background, getting their words broadcast around Japan and probably the world. There are aliens, and they don’t need flying saucers?

I still want a rifle, right now. I feel naked without a rifle. This is aggravating. Do I need to put up with all this nonsense? Yes, yes I do. I settled down.

The national police finally showed up and the manga shop and my coffee cup, reheated several times by the owner, were crowded by far too many people. The lead uniformed officer approached Mr. Yukinoshita, member of the Diet, and started speaking to him in hard tones with great urgency, eyeing Yukino, who cowered behind her furious mother who was a half second from leaping on the man like an angry momma bear. Career wrecking to get this interaction wrong. The officer turned and regarded me. Here we go.

“We have some questions for you. Would you please come with us to police headquarters?” he asked, and it wasn’t a request.

“Police Captain Takeda, is it? In the interest in peaceful relations with my fellow citizens I would be happy to assist you. Just realize, before you get any ideas, I am a war veteran and I can make ANYTHING explode, at will. Do not annoy me. I came to shop in Shinjuku and I have had a trying day. I will be returning home later. I become very cross if I don’t get enough sleep.”

This only seemed to make him more determined. I made sure to wave to the cameras and ham it up because I was a magical girl, dammit. I made sure to fly and glow green for all the international news broadcasts. Take that, Hawking!