Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex Fan Fiction ❯ My Magical Gate Experience Was Ruined, As I Expected ❯ YGS: 16 ( Chapter 16 )

[Batou]

When Itami returned from Italica, he presented quite the picture. His eyes blackened, and with a peace treaty and special business deal at the city. The politicians would like hearing about the trade agreement, and wouldn’t care a bit about using old munitions and a live fire exercise on local bandits. I escorted the gormless idiot to our new bath facility and his harem made use of it on their side. After a bath and a good meal, Hachiman got to give Itami the bad news in the presence of the CO. I was lucky enough to witness this and his face? Priceless.

“Are you sure this is a good idea, bringing civilians to Tokyo to testify?” Itami stuggled to remain calm.

“I’ve got orders,” said the colonel. “Now you have yours. You leave in two hours.”

Hachiman led us to the mess tent and I found his sister and Yukino tiredly eating, their flight suits unzipped from the tops, showing some skin around their sleeveless OD green teeshirts. Yukino would never match Haruno, though she had her own appeal to plenty of Otaku. There were web pages dedicated to her now. And fan fiction.

Komachi also had web pages and fan fiction and pictures. She’d been photographed more often, and there were banner advertisements for her books, something she admitted to finding both amusing and profitable.

“That gear looks hot,” I said, joining them with my own tray. I remain focused on protein so not much rice on my tray, but three eggs and veggie stir fry.

“Its good at altitude, where it gets cold. My current gear will let me rise to 10 km altitude, where its minus 20.”

“That’s like Everest. How do you breathe up there?”

“Spells for oxygen and a pressure shield. Magical girls are tough,” Komachi said. Yukino nodded agreement, sipping coffee.

“Well, we’re taking Itami’s harem to the Diet, leaving soon. Are you coming too?” I asked them. Yukino nodded.

“Daddy wants me there. Mother is making the best of it, and Haruno keeps throwing gasoline on the fire. It isn’t like she’s married, herself.”

“Any man who wants to stick his wedding tackle into Haruno’s meat grinder is beyond reason,” offered Komachi the crudest language I’d ever heard from her.

“Haruno is no worse than sensei was at her age. Difficult women are good at pushing away men,” I countered her comment.

“You never did,” accused Yukino.

“Of course not. Saki is my one and only,” I responded tartly. Yukino blushed. Komachi just grinned.

“Well, you have good taste and put the work in. Saki is lucky to have you,” said my best friend’s sister, and my own sister in law, or would be soon anyway.

“Are you going back to your homes to prepare? I think Itami might be in over his head running herd on all those girls.”

“I want to, but you need the security help so I’m going to stay with you while they’re here. Hachiman thinks this will reduce all the spies and snipers following me around. I hope he’s not being optimistic,” Komachi said, eyeing her brother, still standing close to Lelei and Yui, where were talking together since they were introduced. At one point Lelei rested her hand, guided by Yui, on Yui’s baby bump. They both looked pleased.

“Well, Itami has to get the girls into the city and wants to show them around a bit, then to a resort in Hakone Peninsula somewhere, and back for the wreath laying ceremony and return to the Special Region after. I suspect they’ll be tailed and I wouldn’t be surprised if there are kidnapping attempts.”

“Ebina is going with them, isn’t she?” asked Komachi with a gleam in her eyes. I noticed that.

“Yes, yes she is. Do you think she’s got a thirst for a man, finally?” I asked Komachi directly.

“There’s a betting pool. You want in?” she teased. I nodded in resignation and picked the date that she’d realize it. She was smart, but dumb about some things, and stubborn. I think a couple more weeks before she notices her own feelings. The revelation that Itami was a Ranger had really shaken her, to his eye. The pressure was building in that woman.

“I’ll see you at the gate in an hour,” I said, going off to clean up before readying some civvy clothing and a handgun for bodyguard duty. Hachiman met me, also in slouch-wear and a shoulder bag he favored for a compact SMG he liked. Apparently, intelligence officers were allowed better guns than general issue combat troops like me, currently. With my rifle logged at the base armory, and three magazines of +P 9x19, I was ready for modest problems.

Itami and his girls arrived and Hachiman approached Lelei la Lelena, and she took his sleeve and sat beside him, visibly afraid. The short drive through the gate brought us out of early morning Tokyo. The gate armor slid shut behind our vehicle and we were cleared past the guard station into downtown Ginza.

There were people around, tourists and shoppers. It is amazing how much humans can get used to. A trans-dimensional gate that warped time and space was reduced to a tourist attraction. Welcome to Tokyo. Itami’s harem looked around and quite impressed by the glass and steel buildings covering most of the sky. This was beyond their imagination.

I watched the crowd, and so did Hachiman. We were met, as scheduled, by some greasy looking police detective from National Intelligence service. He dropped the Green Beret bomb on the team, and Ebina went ballistic over Itami’s qualifications. Hachiman and I looked at each other, with those qual ribbons ourselves, and said nothing.

We went from the gate to the Diet building via a nice tour bus. Watching Ebina’s seething outrage as she fretted on the bus was entertaining. I wanted popcorn for some reason. It was that good.

It was a twenty minutes across town trip and I made a side trip to get a blue ladies business suit for Tuka. The jeans were just not right for a Diet appearance. The suit was better. The princess and her retainer looked fine in their formalwear. Itami, Hikigaya and I were all in dress blues, with medals. And sidearms.

Eventually passing through Diet security, and allowed to keep our weapons, we took seats behind our guests and watched them as each was called as witnesses for this dog and pony show. Some sour faced woman member of the Diet was showing off, insulting the JSDF, and our competence fighting dragons. I missed all of that so just listened.

I suffered through the insults out of the microphone and did my job. This is one fool looking for votes. Eventually the girls gave their testimony, and Itami had to interrupt Rory before she exploded, while calling the interrogator a “little girl”. Hachiman, sitting beside his sister, their ahoge’s wiggling in the air, squinted at the Diet through this whole business.

Itami answered questions about age, after Rory’s insults at the Diet legislator’s poor understanding of magical beast combat.

“It’s like she never saw a Gojira movie,” I whispered to Hachiman, who grinned. So did Komachi, which seemed to disturb all those looking in our direction. Sometimes Komachi could grin like a madwoman and it was very creepy when she did that.

“Hachiman, are you going to introduce Lelei to Yui after this Diet business is over?”

“That’s my plan. She is sitting as a guest of the Yukinoshitas.”

“I thought they don’t like you,” I said, somewhat confused. Mr. Yukinoshita was quietly observing, without any shown emotion. He probably had a lot of practice.

“Oh, they don’t. They wanted me to marry Yukino, but Yui won that fight, and nobody can hate Yui after meeting her.” This made sense. Yui was a very genuine person. The family and guest sections behind the legislator seating, on a balcony, eventually revealed Yui and also Haruno, who was whispering in her ear. Yui looked uncomfortable. Haruno has that effect on… everyone.

Eventually the session ended and we were thanked and dismissed. Now the next part of the job began: escort the guests around Tokyo, show them to the shopping areas, one of our hot springs resorts, stuff like that. The detective/agent directed us to the subway system and we took the stairs down, buying passes towards our hotel. After hours of this we were all hungry and Itami, with the expense account card, directed the entire team into a local ramen place. We ate ramen, and the girls tried beer, suitably giggly. I watched the door, and our tails, from what were probably China, Russia, the USA, and a few other powers. Maybe the Vatican?

The detective finally directed us back to the subway and Rory crowded Itami, who complained he looked like some shady pimp offering cosplay hookers to dirty businessmen. This was an accurate description so I said nothing, watching the crowd. After some time on the train Rory was getting anxious and we took the stop early, right before the PA announced the train was stopped due to track problems ahead.

We exited the underground to Rory’s relief and some guy tried to steal her halberd. Did I mention she was carrying her halberd wrapped in a black velvet sheet? She was. Taller than her, and also heavier, Rory’s halberd had been targeted. The thief made one step before the weight crushed him to the ground like a toad under a car tire. The police detective grinned and bent down to pick it up.

“Let me,” he offered helpfully.

“Wait!” I warned, but it was too late. I heard his back pop several times and he dropped in agony. The EMTs showed up in about 5 minutes and strapped the detective to a back board, where eventually some chiropractor would straighten his spine and rescue the man’s future, even if he would need a cane for the next six months of recovery. Rory watched this all with amusement.

“We’ve been followed since we exited the gate. I think I know somewhere to go we won’t be expected,” Itami said, thoughtfully. It was a good idea. We used three taxicabs and headed out of the city and into the suburbs before stopping outside a typical two story row apartment complex. The upper floor and a key under the mat had Itami leading the group into a 6 mat cramped apartment where a giggling woman noticed and hugged him.

“Yoji!” she cheered and hugged him. He presented her with some leftover food from the ramen shop earlier. She greedily transferred the cutlet and noodles to a bowl and into her microwave. A minute later she was gobbling this down like she was starving.

“Itami? Who is this?” asked a jealous sounding Ebina Hina.

“My ex-wife.”

We slept the night in that tiny apartment and rose after dawn and headed for the shopping district. We took the trains to a shopping district a few stops away. The girls split up, Hina leading the princess and her handmaid, the drill haired maiden that had beaten up Itami, twice, into a manga store which advertised all sorts of tastes. I had a bad feeling, but it was Hina. She wouldn’t crash another kingdom with Yaoi again, would she? Would she?

I stuck to the job, minding Hachiman’s back and keeping the loli under control, which was similar to herding cats. She finally lost her bored taunting at the sight of a while lacy outfit in a window. She looked impressed and her protestations about already owning the perfect raiment for her god died on her lips. Satisfied with shopping, we eventually formed a plan for reaching our destination at Hakone and did so, taking the bus.

We arrived at the remote hot spring resort after dusk and the women headed for the changing room and entered the baths. Hachiman, Itami, and I went to the men’s bath, under a rising full moon. We all had our guns handy, because it has been that kind of day. I managed to relax despite this.

[Tanya/Komachi]

The hot spring was nice, very comfortable. Yui settled into the bath with us, her small baby bump showing, and my nephew (it seems) would be due in 7 months. Ebina goaded Risa about Itami, like a scab she couldn’t stop picking at, and after some exposition about school romance and why they married, she revealed why she divorced him after the Ginza Incident (and I’m sure she regretted it too). Ebina’s expression showed I’d lost my bet on the pool about Hina. She knew. She looked conflicted to hell, but she knew. Rory kept smirking quietly, submerged in the hot spring.

The gun battle a few hours later was making Rory crazy. There must have been three or four dozen special ops guys out there, shooting each other with silenced weapons. Normally I’d go out there and destroy them, but once again, the military refused to allow me my rifle on this mission, and a small handgun just seemed a bad choice. I spent my energy on shields, stopping several rounds from perforating the visitors and my brother and his wife. Yukino did likewise. This was why we were here. If the winners of the battle outside thought they could storm the room they would have a very bad experience. Hopefully the Diet would be paying for the repairs. This had been a very nice resort and the holes in the woodwork was going to cost a fortune to fix. Idiots.

Rory eventually seized her weapon, jumped out the sliding door, and joined in the slaughter. She was hit several times but it was merely irritating to her. The bullets boiled out once the action was over. Emerging from our wrecked room, Itami suggested we pick up the guns and ammo, and I did so. I found several MP7s, with silencers and night vision red dot scopes. If I could get ammo, these would be acceptable for CQB and sniper missions. Sentry removal while flying? Yes please.

I still need a proper main battle rifle. The requisition paperwork kept being denied because some General at the JSDF who set policy to use the Type 64’s in the Special Region rather than merely terrible Type 89’s, all of them seriously just junk… I sighed. The bribery and corruption of the Japanese military and the industrial contractors was a source of embarrassment. The kind that causes generals to overlook the deaths of servicemen and women in an actual warzone and keep taking the bribes.

These MP7 autopistols and their modern German baffled silencers were pretty good, for fighting men in Kevlar at night. I found some vests on men who’d been headshot, and more magazines of 4.6x28. Its basically a .224 Boz, with a special case just to be proprietary, and different from the silly Grendel P90, which is a 5.56 short and a 30 grain bullet. This lacks stopping power beyond 100 feet. That’s just a cut down and cheaper and light version of the 5.56 NATO so it will work on a blowback action which is very cheap to make and maintain, only proprietary for maximum profit by FN. Browning would probably cry at what happened to Fabrique Nationale after he died and the bean counters took over. Besides, drop a P90 on its sling on a partial magazine and the rounds tumble, locking it into uselessness and you need another magazine, something you’d find out the next time you tried to fire it. Fool design for a counterterrorist CQB weapon. Someone wasn’t using their brain on that one.

We dressed in civvy clothing and gathered our captured gear and found ways to conceal it for quick access. Niisan spotted the van before I did and Ebina put her muzzle into the sleeping driver’s cheek. Lelei used a sleep spell, which I learned from the casting. That would be useful, maybe better than sniping sentries.

We loaded up into the K-car van and after a brief search in the engine compartment, then under the car to disable a GPS beacon, Batou drove. He was good at it. The plan was to get back to the Gate after attending the flower-wreath laying ceremony for the dead from the Ginza incident. It was a photo-op, but we’d do it.

Traffic in Ginza was horrible, especially with the efforts by Risa to announce the event on social media across Japan, starting with Lines. Apparently, the Americans and Europeans shared some kind of social media stuff, but that just seemed like something doomed to fascist takeover. Japan had its own. We only care about Japanese issues. The crowds and traffic got so heavy we’d stopped moving 5 minutes ago.

“I think its time for the magical girls to make an appearance and distract the crowds. Yukino, Rory, are you with me?” I asked. They agreed and we stepped out. Rory carried flowers. So did we. Yukino and I walked forward through the lines of cars, with Rory following with her axe and some lilies. People said hello, snapped pictures. I left my SEP off, but ramped up my protective shields. Idol smile. Idol smile. Step forward. I was aware niisan and Batou followed, Risa taking over the van for abandoning somewhere, and spies looking frustrated outside the edge of the crowd.

A news crew called out to Ebina. Oh, it was the sister, that idiot. Ebina, knowing how to ham it up, took over with greetings for her mother and completely distracted them from interfering with us. I have noticed before but Hina Ebina is smart. Well done.

We somehow guided our guests to the memorial wall next to the gate and laid our flowers for the dead, prayed like good Japanese magical girls and Rory asked for a bell. The clock tower on the corner of the building overhead rang for 2 PM and she was satisfied. Eventually the crowd vanished, and a Japanese jeep arrived to carry us through the gate back to the Special Region.